SoulMates
by Cholo Palai
Summary: It has been four years since the final battle, three since she locked herself away in Grimmauld Place, when Viola Potter stumbled across a journal that belonged to Dumbledore that explained there was, in fact, a deeper connection between her and the now- dead Dark Lord.femharry,HP/LV, dumbledorebashing
1. Chapter 1

A/N:-This story is taken from kitterkat100. First two or three chapters will be familiar, after that all will be my own. This is not proofread so mistakes might've slipped in here and there.

Constructive criticism is appreciated, but please bear in mind that English is not my first language and that I'm not a regular writer before going off on me.

Disclaimer:- I do not own Harry Potter...

Prologue

Viola Potter was not sure what drew her attention to the files the Order had left behind at Grimmauld Place. It had, after all, been four years to the day since the final battle at Hogwarts, and three since her self imposed exile within the confines of the moldering town-house of Sirius's youth with nothing but a portrait and a house-elf for company. Over the years Viola and Kreacher had grown fond of each other. Although that had only started when she began learning pureblood etiquette from the portrait of Lady Walburga Black, however, Viola found that she did enjoy the lessons. The relationship was one of the few things that brought her any joy now. The only living human contact she had since she locked herself away from the world was Neville and Luna, and that was only because she had still tried to commit suicide on a regular basis. She stopped doing that after she found out they had put a charm on the house to alert them when she did try to kill herself, after all she had no right to take herself from their lives.

Neville and Luna had gotten married two years after the final battle. They were the only friends she had left, the only friends who were still loyal to her. The last time she had tried to kill herself was four months ago, on his birthday. Now she just spent all her time in the library soaking up magic that was like his, but not quite. And that was when she came across the files that had been left behind. Although, it was not until she was in the kitchen that her curiosity got the better of her.

Now she was rifling through the old files at the dining room table with Kreacher, muttering about blood-traitor's filth being left in The Most Noble and Ancient House of Black's. In her head Viola kept calling herself an idiot for dragging up things that would only bring her nothing but pain. Then she found it. It was black, nondescript, and yet sent warning bells off in her head. That should have been her first clue, the bells that came from the part of her mind that she dubbed her 'Slytherin self'. She had only started listening to it four years ago, as she watched that powerful snake-like man drop to his death.

The second clue was the fact that it was in Dumbledore's handwriting. She tried to avoid thinking about him, like she did a great many things, mostly because it was pointless to be angry at the dead. The third warning was that on the first page he had titled it 'T.M.R' and 'V.L.P'.

She chose to ignore the side of herself that said she would not like what she found inside of the leather-bound journal. The journal that reminded her of another, and through that memory of dark brown eyes and blood and burning in her veins and that blood-traitor, Ginny, lying prone on the cold floor. But no, those memories were too painful. Anything relating to him was painful. So instead of thinking of things best unthought-of, she turned to a random page of the leather journal and read the date.

'June 28, 1996,' just a few days after Sirius's death.

'Ronald and Hermione have just left my office in a rather shocked state, but they have agreed to the task I have given them. It saddens me, but if Viola lives after Tom's death she will have to either be isolated from the rest of society or killed. I hope for the former if she should live. Though I highly doubt that, after all only the strongest of people can live after the death of their soulmate, and while she is strong- she's not the strongest. Hopefully she will die, of course after she kills Tom, otherwise we might have to deal with an even more insane Dark Lord. It saddens me, but it must be done for the Greater Good.'

Viola's brain had stopped working, it could not be possible. She and Tom were soulmates? She had read about soulmates in the Black library upstairs and wondered how could he think such a thing. Surely she would have known if they were soulmates. She quickly turned to the front of the book to see if she could get a better idea of what that old coot meant. The first page was dated,

'May 18, 1980,

I cast a charm on both Alice and Lily that will show me the gender of each child. The charm also tells me if the children they bare have soulmates and if they do who also the names of the soulmates. Frank and Alice will have a boy without a soulmate, unsurprising as soulmates are quite rare, border-line myth. James and Lily on the other hand will have a girl with a soulmate. Tom Marvolo Riddle. Lord Voldemort. I did not tell them this, only that she will be a girl. I am upset that such an innocent girl will have to die. Luckily, young Severus Snape has come to me for help and in exchange I will protect Lily from Tom. In promising this I have secured a spy. Before he left I placed a confundus charm on him, that will affect anyone who enters his mind to see the Potters child as the greater threat to Tom. Knowing Tom uses Legilimency on his followers on a regular basis, this means he will go after his yet to be born soulmate. Killing both her and himself in one swoop. Of course this means, most likely, that both Lily and James will die as I doubt they will let Tom murder their child without a fight. I wish it were not so, but it has to be this way. For the Greater Good.'

Viola swore loudly, she could not believe what she just read. "That BLOODY Dumbledore had known, and he tricked us both into killing each other," Viola thought to herself. Dumbledore was the reason he came to Godric's Hollow that night. He knew her parents were going to die for her. He let it happen. "THAT BASTARD!" she exclaimed As if that revelation broke a spell, Viola shot out of the room, and the stairs, only stopping when Walburga asked what was wrong.

Viola stopped and stuttered, "Dark Lord—Me—Dumbledore –SoulMates," and with that she continued up the stairs to the library to find the book on soulmates, that she had earlier only skimmed. When she got into the library she ran to the furthest corner from the door and grabbed the slim pale purple book. The Blacks only had a little on soulmates, because in all their history only one of the Blacks ever had one. She quickly opened the book to the page she was looking for.

'Soulmates are an incredibly rare phenomena in which, two wizard's souls are compatible. The two soulmates can go their entire lives without meeting, but this will often make the wizards go insane. If one member of an acknowledged pair of soulmates dies the other's body will shut down from shock. Often they too will die anywhere from one hour to two days after the death of their mate. If a member of the pair dies at the hand of the other, even unaware, the one who killed the first member will fall into a black depression. In the end they will more than likely kill themselves.

If suicide does not happen they will quickly lose interest in the world. This will be like a living way to know your soulmate is a link between minds, the strength depending on the wizards magical core and the strength of the bond between them. Also if one has a genetic ability, like being a Metamorphmagus, then their mate will be able to use the ability, even if they have not yet met.'

"Oh Goddess, what have I done? Tom, oh Tom, please. I am so sorry. Please. I am sorry, Tom." These were the only thoughts running through Viola's head as she fell to her knees, sobbing. She stayed like that for who knows how long, just crying and begging for the dead man's forgiveness. After a while she stopped sobbing and got up, she went to where she kept her wand, not having moved it from where it fell from her grasp when Neville tore it from her hands four months ago, and with only one thought on her mind. The thought that she would soon be able to ask Tom's forgiveness face-to-face. She picked up the phoenix feather-core wand and pointed it to her heart just as the Floo activated, bringing Luna and Neville through. She looked at their faces and smiled as she said her last words.

"Avada Kedavra." And all went dark.

A woman with curly black hair, and eyes the color of the curse that took her life stood in the center of a big white room, glaring. Suddenly she yelled, "Come on, someone. Tell me what is going on, so that this can hurry up and I can go apologize to Tom, please."

"It would be better if you rather listen to me first before doing anything else, mistress," the voice said from behind Viola. She whirled around and stared. The voice belonged to a rather handsome looking man with long dark hair and solid black eyes- no whites, "Hello, Mistress. I am Death. You can call me Thanatos."

"Death, great, that's just great. What do you want?" Viola asked exasperatedly. She was tired and just wanted it to be over and now Death was preventing that.

"I don't want anything, at least not yet. You see, you died Mistress of my Hallows and that means you get a choice. You can either die here and go to the afterlife that awaits you or you can return to the moment of your death-"

"I choose the first one. I have no right to live after what I did to Tom," Viola answered without hesitation, as tears formed in her eyes.

"You didn't let me finish. You see I like you and your soulmate, so you have a third choice. You can go back to the day that you first used your mate's magical ability, parseltongue. So, you would return to the morning of June 23, 1991 with all your knowledge of the future."

Viola turned her back to Thanatos as she thought over his offer. On one hand she would see Tom again, whole, well not completely whole, but alive. Yet, on the other hand Tom would not know that they were soulmates and would try to kill her, and she did not know if she could handle all of that all over again. A thought popped in her mind, and she could not stop herself from asking, "What's in it for you? After all, no one ever does anything just because they like someone."

"Caught on to that, did you? You are right there is one thing I need you to do for me in exchange for sending you back. It's complicated and will require you to put in years of effort. You see if the timeline continues on the path it is on then the Muggles will soon discover magic at a global scale and make the Inquisition look like an afternoon picnic. There is also another reason I am doing this. You see if things had gone as planned originally then you and Tom would have met at Hogwarts in 1938, but you see the body your soul inhabited died just a few years before then, and souls can only be reborn again after forty-five years. So because of this, Fate and I decided to go on with plan B. Which didn't work, because someone decided to meddle. Guess who?" Thanatos explained letting all of this sink into Viola's mind.

"Dumbledore." Viola replied, in shock over everything she had learned and so she latched on to the least perplexing thing.

Thanatos nodded, "You see Dumbledore was not supposed to hear the prophecy, in fact only Snape was to hear it, which would have caused Tom-boy to go after the Longbottoms. In plan B you would grow up normal and happy, despite the war going on. You would have met Tom at sixteen, when you accidentally got lost in Knockturn Alley. From there you two would have courted for about a year when he would have told you everything and you would have joined him and put the Muggles under magical control. Which is what I still want you to do now."

"Why do you want Muggles under control. I mean, they are just Muggles. So why?"

"I prefer wizards, and I hate seeing them killed by those lesser than them. I have seen Muggles bring destruction to magic before and I don't want history to repeat itself." Viola nodded, deep in thought. She thought long and hard, well it seemed long as time had no meaning here.

Finally, Viola sighed, "I wish to go back." Thanatos smiled, as pleased as the cat that caught the canary.

"Good, I just need you to sign this." He handed her a parchment that basically said she would do everything in her power to stop the Muggles from destroying the world. Viola signed and she knew Death no more.


	2. Chapter2

**A/N:- I do not own Harry Potter...!!**

"Get up FREAK!" A large fist pounded on the small cupboard. "Make us some breakfast!" Vernon Dursley bellowed.

Bloody hell, she forgot about her Muggle family. She had mostly put them out of her mind after the final battle. During that time she was busy trying to repair the wizarding world and to figure out why the Weasleys and most of her friends, apart from Luna and Neville, were suddenly turning their backs on her despite her doing everything perfectly well. Then when she was locked up in Grimmauld Place she spent all her time learning etiquette from Lady Walburga and learning magic and history from the Black.

"What she's going to do now?" she wondered. If she went out there she knew it was likely that she would kill them. But unfortunately she could not do that, Dumbledore would find out within seconds what she had done. She did notice that there some wards around the house. Although, they were not the basic Ministry wards that would alert them to any magic done by a Hogwarts age child, instead the wards reeked of Dumbledore. They would alert him to any magic done in the home. However, they would not work on soulmate magic because it was done by the soulmate and could not be tracked. Dumbledore had other wards, most of them alerting him to anything pertaining to Viola, which was even more awful now knowing what was going to happen in the future.

He knew what was going on with the Dursleys and yet he did nothing. She knew he had known some of it, because she told him herself, but he knew long before then and he could have done something. Whenever something new came to light about Dumbledore she was no longer surprised, nor she was enraged. She wondered if Tom would let her kill him when it was time, or at least let her try a couple of the new curses she found in the Black library. Viola sighed. It would be of no use to sit and pout about her lot in life. Besides staying in her cupboard would just mean a beating from that fat bastard, Vernon. With that in mind she quickly got out of the cupboard and ran to kitchen.

Once there she began making their breakfasts, only paying attention when they started debating about whether or not to take her with them to the zoo. Viola had no desire to spend more time than necessary in the presence of these 'filths' that she called family. Just like last time it was decided that she would go with the Dursleys. "Joy" she thought.

Everything was the same as it had been before until the reptile house. Just like the last time she was in front of the boa constrictor's cage, breathing deeply Viola spoke,

"Hello Serpent, how are you today?"

Slowly the snake raised his head and hissed,

"Speaker? I never meet a speaker before. What are you doing with non-magical humans?"

"It's a long story, I don't-" but before Viola could finish her sentence she was pushed out of the way by her whale of a cousin, Dudley, who was exclaiming loudly that the snake was doing something interesting. How did she forget that? As she glared at him she focused a bit of her magic on the glass making it vanish just like the last time, but this time she did on purpose. And just like the last time the serpent uncoiled and moved quickly across the floor to escape, while Dudley fell through were the glass used to be. Just like last time the snake hissed, "Thank you, Speaker" as he slithered away.

"Good luck,"Viola hissed back smiling at the large snake.

•••••••••••New Beginning••••••••••

Later that night, Viola was locked in her cupboard with several bruises and broken bones Seething, she locked herself in her mind to allow her magic to heal her body, while also looking for a connection between Tom's mind and her own. After a few long moments she found it, but just before passing out in shock at the sheer madness and pain she felt at his end of the mind link.

When she finally woke up the next morning, she thought about how she was going to handle this situation. First she would have to get Tom his body back, but to do that she would have to get rid of some of his madness. She could fix that by giving him some of her magic. With that in mind she decided that she would start sending magic to him through the mind link before she went to bed every night. This would also have the added benefit to strengthen their bond. She hoped that she might be able to help him take full possession of Quirrell's body this time, which would of course help him get to the Philosopher's Stone, ultimately helping him to get a body.

Throughout the day, while working like a house elf for her muggle filth of a relative, she thought of multiples ways to go about getting the stone to Tom without alerting that lemon sucking old goat. Honestly, now when she thought about it, how she had survived twenty one years in her first life was beyond her. At Privet Drive she was treated worse than the House-Elf, she was degraded, beaten, starved, and made to slave over every part of the house. And in wizarding world? Well, there she had to watch her back from everyone and everything, she had to put on a show of being the 'Girl-Who-Lived', while fighting with a wizard who was known as the most powerful dark lord to have ever lived.

Honestly, how had wizarding world expected a teenage girl to defeat the most feared dark lord without any training or knowledge? By laughing him to dead? She had always had these thoughts, but never spoke of them out of fear for everyone who cared for her, or at least pretended to care for her, leaving her. After all it would not have done any good for the little Light Savior to have such thoughts anyway.

She was supposed to sit down, shut up, and say she was fine, even if she wasn't fine at all. She couldn't not be fine, because if she wasn't then who was going to save the incompetent idiots from the big, bad Dark Lord. After all they needed a seventeen year old girl who had really only managed to survive that long through luck. It was kind of sad. The first time around she did not think that much about it, she was just following orders from others. This time though the only one she would take orders from was her soulmate. No one else mattered to her all that much, well except for Neville and Luna. As soon as that thought entered Viola's head she realized she missed her only true friends, and now that she had a chance with Tom, she would also have to somehow convince her friends to join the Dark side. Which seemed impossible, considering what had happened to Neville's parents. "Great, more to figure out," she thought to herself. She wondered if she would be able to lure them to the Dark side or at least convince them to stay neutral.

As she laid down that evening she quickly located the bond in her mind that connected her to Tom. This time she was prepared for the intensity of the connection and tried to ignore the pure rage and insanity on his end. After taking a few calming breaths she gathered up some of her magic and began pushing it slowly towards Tom. Tom must have felt the magic coming towards him and got greedy, because he began sucking her magic away forcefully. She tried to fight him off , causing him to realize that if he lost his source of magic something bad would happen. He drifted out leaving her just enough that she would not die of magical depletion. She sighed and tried to go to sleep, only thinking that this would be lot harder than she had thought.

Over the next month Viola repeated the process of giving Tom some of her magic every night, and it seemed to help.There was hardly any madness or rage now, and he seemed to get more curious every night. He had tried to get to her side of the bond several times, probably to see the source of the magic and to figure out if it was trustworthy, but every time he got close she would slam down the connection between them and stop his progress. To be frank Viola was afraid of what Tom's reaction would be to learn she was the source. After all she was the one who had vanquished him, even if it was unintentional.

Viola was brought out of her thoughts when her walrus uncle yelled at her to get the mail, which reminded her that today was the day she would get her Hogwarts letter. She kept her head down so the insects would not notice her smirk. As she walked back to the kitchen she opened her Hogwarts letter, just making sure everything was in order, not because she was feeling nostalgic. No, it was not that at all.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY-

 _Headmaster_ : _Albus_ _Dumbledore_ ( _Order_ _of_ _Merlin_ , _First_ _Class_. _Grand_ _Sorc_., _Chf_. _Warlock_ , _Supreme_ _Mugwump_ , _International_ _Confed_. _Wizards_ )

 _Dear_ , _We_ _are_ _pleased_ _to_ _inform_ _you_ _that_ _you_ _have_ _been_ _accepted_ _at_ _Hogwarts_ _School_ _of_ _Witchcraft_ _And_ _Wizardry_. _Please_ _find_ _enclosed a_ _list_ _of_ _all_ _necessary_ _books_ _and_ _begins_ _on_ _September 1st._ _We_ _await_ _your_ _owl_ _by_ _no_ _later_ _than_ _July 31_.

 _Yours_ _sincerely_ ,

 _Minerva McGonagall,_

 _Deputy_ _Headmistress_.

Viola tried really hard not to look at Dumbledore's name, because she knew if she did she might accidentally destroy something with her magic. Of course she did not notice all the cracks along the front door. As she opened the door to the kitchen she spoke,

"I'm a witch. Why didn't you tell? Was it not important? Wait don't answer that, I know the answer. It was important to you, that's why you took every chance to belittle me, or beat me!" – well it was more like she yelled rather than spoke. She was actually surprised at the force of her anger.

"Vernon," Petunia said, eyes locked on the letter in her niece's hand. Vernon started to run, well for him it was running, towards the dark-haired eleven year old, probably with the intent of another beating. Suddenly he stopped, as if there was an invisible wall between him and the witch. There was a dark and oppressive air in the kitchen as Viola glared at her earliest tormentors.

"No! No more. You are filthy Muggles, beneath me, a witch. Now I am going to lay down some ground rules, and you better listen up if you don't want any unfortunate accidents. First, I want Dudley's second bedroom. Second, I want you to. Leave. Me. Alone. Don't touch me, don't talk to me, don't even think about me. Got it? Good." She finished with a sadistic smirk on her lips, "Now, I am going to move my stuff upstairs, and then I am going to write the school. And hopefully we can get to September 1st without killing each other." With that she stormed out of the kitchen.

Later, Viola sat at the desk in her room with a piece of paper and a pencil, after all where would she get parchment and learn how to use a quill. When she was done she looked over the letter, making sure it sound perfectly innocent and not at all like she was planning the death of the Head Idiot.

 _Dear_ _Deputy_ _Headmistress McGonagall,_

 _I_ _have_ _received_ _your_ _letter_ _and I_ _was_ _wondering_ _where_ _you_ _buy_ _the_ _things_ _on_ _the_ _list? I_ _mean_ _it's_ _not_ _like I_ _can_ _walk_ _down_ _to_ _the_ _bookstore_ _and_ _buy_ _The_ _Standard_ _Book_ _of_ _Spells_. _And_ _how_ _am I_ _supposed_ _to_ _get_ _to_ _platform 9?_ _I_ _mean_ _how_ _is_ _there_ _an_ _in-between_ _platform?_ _How_ _is_ _that possible?_ _In_ _need_ _of_ _help_.

 _Yours Sincerely,_

 _Viola_ _Lily Potter._

After nodding to herself in satisfaction, she went to the window and called the simple barn owl that was standard for Hogwarts. She sent the plain bird on its way, while thinking of her own exotic beauty of an owl, Hedwig, she already was planning to get her again. After all, Hedwig was one of the most loyal creatures Viola had ever met, and she had missed the owl for many years.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer :- I do not own Harry Potter...!! **

The day after Viola sent off her letter to McGonagall there was knock on the front door. She went to open it, as she had nothing to do and the Muggles had gone out for the day. Imagine her surprise at seeing Hagrid at the door, although on second thought, it was not really all that surprising. After all, that old goat Dumbledore would have sent someone who was completely loyal to him, so that she would begin to worship him as her savior. Common psychology for abused kids. Not that it will work now of course, she was no normal kid this time.

"Who are you?" Viola asked, innocently, trying her hardest not to scowl at him. She remembered a time when she thought Hagrid was her friend, but he was one of the first to turn his back on her. A few days after Hagrid's betrayal the Weasleys kicked her out of the Burrow, just two weeks after the final battle of Hogwarts.

"I am Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." He said as she led him to the living room.

"Why didn't Professor McGonagall just send another letter? I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself," Viola asked, while thinking to herself, 'Dumbledore sent the groundskeeper, like last time. It made sense. He needed someone who would be able to intimidate the Dursleys, but there was no need for that this time. Still the bloody groundskeeper, not even someone who could legally use magic. What a great protection for the Girl-Who-Lived.'

"Well, that wouldn't do for yeh. After all yer famous." Hagrid smiled, clearly happy that the old man trusted him with such an important job.

"Me, famous? For what?" She asked, with what she hoped were the big, confused eyes of a little girl who looked quite eager to learn more about herself.

"Yeh don't know! Why yer the most famous witch in Britain. It-yer the one who killed You-know-Who." He looked around nervously like saying the Dark Lord's name was enough to summon him. If only.

"So I'm famous for killing someone! Do you expect me to be proud of it? Why would I want to be famous for that? And on the top of that, I think I would remember killing someone. And no, I don't know who," Viola said coldly. With anger beginning to boil inside her as she thought about how Dumbledore had manipulated Tom to go after her before she was even born.

Hagrid stared at Viola dumbly. He hadn't expected an outburst like this. Then he began to tell her the story like he did in her first life, "It's a bit of' a long story. You-Know-Who about twenty years ago now, started looking fer followers. Got 'em, too. Dark days, Viola. Didn't know who ter trust. He started takin' over. Of course some stood up to him- and' he killed 'em. One of' the safest places was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try taking' the school, not just then," He continued on with the story of how Tom came to Godric's Hollow, and killed her family. She zoned out, only listening to know when to change her facial expressions.

"So a madman," how it hurt her to say that, "came to my parent's home, killed them and tried to kill me. Fine, but I still don't get why I am famous for living when my parents died."

"Yer too young to understand now, but one day yeh will and…. "

"Enough with heavy topics. You said you were here to help gather my supplies? Very well. Let's go. My relatives won't be back until tomorrow." She cut him off, because she didn't want to talk about all this, certainly not with someone who don't even care.

"Are yer fine Viola?"

"Just peachy. Actually, do you have to go with me? I mean, I want to explore, and look around on my own. Plus I work better on my own." She asked, as she didn't want Hagrid there with her.

"Are yeh sure? Dumbledore said I should go with yeh, but if you think yeh'll be fine…"

"Yes, if you could just show me the way, I will be fine," she assured him. Then to herself she silently pleased, 'Please say okay.'

"Well, okay. If yer sure." The visit to the Leaky Cauldron was about the same, but she didn't see Quirrell this time, which she was kind of disappointed by. Hagrid left after he showed her the way into Diagon Alley, saying if she needed anything just to ask Tom the Barkeep. He then gave her the key and told her how to get to Gringotts. Viola first went to Gringotts, after taking galleons from her vault she decided first to buy the school uniform and some extra new dresses. She did not want to wear her cousin's hand-me-down clothes any longer than necessary. Madam Malkin looked the same, a simple smiling witch dressed all in lilac.

"Hogwarts, dear?" She asked when Viola started to speak. "Got the lot here - another young man your age being fitted up just now, in fact." At the back of the shop, a blonde boy with a pale face was standing on a footstool while a another witch pinned up his long black robes. Viola clearly recognize him, Draco Malfoy. Viola had not expected to see him today.

She stole a glance at Draco from the corner of her eye. She hadn't seen him since the final battle. Most of the Dark families had fled from Britain in very real fear of prosecution. The Malfoys had gone to France, if she remembered correctly. In her first life she had refused Draco's friendship in preference for Ronald of all people. She wondered how it would had been if she hadn't refused his friendship. Viola stood on a stool next to Draco, waiting for Madam Malkin.

"Hello," Draco said cheerily,"Hogwarts, too?"

"Yes" answered Viola.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," he said. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow." He continued with a small smile. Viola just nodded. "Have you got your own broom?" He went on.

"No" Viola replied "I live with Muggles. They don't like magic and want nothing to do with it. But I know how to play Quidditch though." And that was the truth, Viola had never lost a Quidditch match in her life.

"You are Muggleborn?" He asked.

Viola shook her head, "Halfblood."

"Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"No, not really" said Viola.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they. But I know I'll be in Slytherin - all my family have been."

"You love Slytherin?"

"Only the best house ever!" The boy grinned mischievously, happy that the girl was finally talking. "Not got the best reputation mind you. People always associate Slytherin with evil and Dark stuff - snakes and all."

"I quite like snakes." Viola added, "Those who think dark means evil are just prejudiced, they fear what they don't understand..."

"Don't go telling Professor Dumbledore that. My father said he's unfair with Slytherin, worst headmaster Hogwarts ever had if you ask me." The boy said nonchalantly.

"I agree," Viola said nodding her head.

The boy stuck out his hand, "I'm Draco by the way. Draco Malfoy."

"Viola Potter." Viola shook his hand.

Draco's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets,"Y-your Viola Potter!" He exclaimed, his mouth open wide enough to catch flies. "Devil's socks! My father told me all about you! You're one of the most famous witches ever!"

Viola was not sure how to reply to that, "Uh, Thanks."Draco let go of her hand but still looked completely flabbergasted. Madam Malkin raised from her bent position at Draco's side and put away her measurements.

"That's it you're done, my dear," She said. Draco hopped down from the footstool and turned to Viola.

"I'd better go..."

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts," she said. "Bye Draco."

"Bye." He waved before walking out the shop, the bell jingling loudly above his head.

After Viola bought her clothes from Madam Malkin, she headed for the bookstore. There she decided to buy some extra books on advanced potions, ancient runes, and dark magic. After buying other school supplies, Viola soon found herself standing in Ollivander's shop. She was curious to see if her beautiful holly wand would still choose her, or if her heart had blackened so much that the pure wood would reject her. She knew this task would probably take the longest.

She remembered up to Ollivander's death the year before how they would exchange letters and he would send her books on wand crafting. Viola had found that she enjoyed learning about wand craft and it soon became a passion of hers. After his death his grandson took over the business, and he had sent her copies of all the books they had on the subject. He even had jokingly asked if she would become his apprentice. So with all of this on her mind she walked right into a place that always seemed to bring her a sense of calm.

"Good morning Viola Potter" Ollivander appeared from behind a stack of wands, smiling at her, "I had a feeling I would see you soon." He continued in a low whispery voice, "I still remember the day when your parents came to buy their first wands. Your mother had a nice wand for charms and your father's wand was better for transfiguration. Now, let's find you a perfect wand, Miss Potter."

Her right hand was measured, and soon she was handed multiple wands to try. After several minutes she realized finding a wand would take as long as the last time if she did not do something to speed up the process. But she could not do that without raising Ollivander's suspicions, after all how will she explain that how she knew which wand will choose her. So she waited patiently for Ollivander to remember the holly wand. Two hours later Ollivander's shop was in disarray and Viola stared at the duet in the middle of the shop impatiently.

Ollivander seemed to be lost, he looked around his shop as if the answer would come out of thin air. Suddenly he seemed to realize something and his whole face lit up. 'Could it be?' Ollivander wondered, looking at Viola. "Perhaps it could. Wait a minute Miss Potter." With that he returned to the shelves of wands. "Here Miss Potter, try this one, holly and phoenix feather, 28 centimeters. Go on give it a wave." He said as he handed the Holly wand to her.

Viola had only closed her fingers around it, when she felt a warmth rushing through her entire body. Sparks of all imaginable colors sprouted from the tip of the wand. She had forgotten the joy she once felt at holding her wand, she had missed it. Ollivander clapped his hands in the joy of finding a perfect match. "That will be eight galleons, and do you want a wand holster?"

Ollivander's voice brought her out of her thoughts, "Hmm, yes, I would."

He brought out a silver holster with a snake carved into the side. "Ten galleons, please."

After leaving Ollivander's shop she went to get Hedwig. Who was as beautiful as ever. Looking at her brought back so many memories of long summers waiting for letters and hiding from her cruel relatives. Viola was not ashamed to say that she almost started to cry in the middle of the shop. Holding the snowy owl she whispered, "Hey girl, we are going to make a lot of beautiful, happy memories together, and this time I promise to protect you, not the other way around. Understand? Good." Hedwig just hooted at her with a look that said everything. Viola laughed through her almost tears. She had missed her beautiful girl so much.

Finally, she went to secure a room at the Leaky Cauldron with a minimum amount of fuss. Tom did not want to rent a room to a girl without parents, but once she turned her fake tear-filled eyes on him, he gave in. Anyone would fall for that look, seriously.

The next few days all she did was read the advanced potions book. She wasn't fond of this subject on her days in Hogwarts, but in her exile days in Grimmauld she came to like the art when she came across several potions that Blacks had invented. She used to spend hours in Black's potion lab, brewing and experimenting. She remembered an incident when she was experimenting with a particularly difficult potion, and had mistakenly added a wrong ingredient, which in result had completely ruined the Black's lab. It had taken Kreacher a whole month to fix the lab again.

Reading potions reminded her of Snape. Severus Snape, he was another issue she had yet to figure out what to do with. Viola knew that Snape had been used, just like her, only he was not fortunate enough to survive the war. Over the years Viola had been feeling that too much had been asked from Snape and too little given in return. Snape had been used by Dumbledore, who had used his terrible guilt and had made him slave to that guilt until the end. He went to Dumbledore because he was desperate and Dumbledore used him very nicely, never respecting him, never trusting him and only telling Snape what he needed to know. Ultimately Dumbledore didn't even give him the satisfaction that he had done his duty to the girl he had loved by telling him Viola would lived through the curse. She was more than sure he had not known anything about her being horcrux or about the elder wand. Pausing, she remembered the memories, she must have played them at least thousand times in her head. Viola knew Snape was loyal only to himself and to Lily's child, and she knew for a fact that he would go to any lengths to keep Lily's child safe.

In her first life Snape never liked her, always seeing her as her father's daughter. Viola would never admit it, but it hurt her that Snape had refused to see her mother in her. Maybe this time she could show him she was her mother's daughter, not just her father's.

While deep in thought suddenly there was a searing pain in Viola's scar. She looked up and through a memory-like haze saw Quirrell muttering to himself as he walked through the forest, suddenly he heard a noise behind him, he paused and slowly turned around to see the source of the noises. Quirrell saw a black smoke like figure, not human nor a ghost, with deep red eyes that seemed to be glowing. Quirrell let out a frightening scream, and then it all went dark.

An hour later Viola woke up, holding her head, the last thing she remembered before passing out was amazing red eyes and pain, so much pain. She knew what she had just seen meant. Tom had possessed Quirrell.


	4. Chapter 4

September came sooner than Viola expected. She had spent her days reading, planning and wandering around the Diagon Alley. On the morning of September 1st she used Floo from Leaky Cauldron to get to King's Cross Station an hour before the train was to leave. After glancing around the station, seeing all the familiar faces, Viola boarded the garishly red train. On board she found an empty compartment near the end of the train, she put her trunk and Hedwig in the compartment and quickly cast a wandless notice-me-not at the door. She pulled a book from her trunk and sat near the window. She had no wish to encounter anyone before reaching Hogwarts, and certainly not Granger and Weasley. She was sure Weasley would soon begin to look for her in hopes of becoming her friend. But this time Viola had no intention to be his friend. In fact she would stay as far away from Weasley and Granger as possible.

The rest of the ride to Hogwarts was uneventful. When the train reached Hogsmeade she took her trunk and got out of the train. She paused when she heard a familiar voice calling behind her. She grinned when she saw Draco making his way toward her with another boy whose name she couldn't remember. He had brown hair which a bit longer than Draco's, and blue eyes like the sky.

"Where were you? I was looking for you everywhere. I thought you missed the train." Draco blurted out, looking annoyed.

"I'm sorry, Draco. I wanted to be alone for awhile, I used a notice-me-not so no one could distu-" she paused when she saw Draco and the boy next to him look at her oddly, "what?" She asked.

"That was an advanced spell, where did you learn it from?"

"Well, I read a lot. I thought everyone would know lot of magic already, I didn't want to be behind." Viola lied without hesitation.

Draco shrugged,

"Anyway meet my friend, Theodore Nott. Theo this is Viola Potter."

Viola smiled at Theodore, and held out her hand,

"Nice to meet you, Nott". Theo took her hand, nodded toward her.

"Likewise, call me Theo."

"Okay, but if only you call me Viola." Theo nodded in response. Their conversation was soon interrupted by Hagrid's loud voice.

"Firs' years, firs' years come over here." Viola, along with Draco, Theo and other first years followed Hagrid. She took a boat with Draco, Theo and Neville.

"H-hi, I'm Neville." Neville extended his hand toward Viola, who happily accepted it. "I'm so nervous," Neville admitted. "I hope I'm in Gryffindor, my parents were in that house, and…I-I just don't know if I'm brave enough."

"I'm sure your parents will be proud of you no matter what house you are in." Viola tried to reassure him.

"I hope so," Neville replied. Viola suddenly wondered if the first time around Neville had asked the hat to place him in Gryffindor simply to please his Gran, like she did to please the wizarding world.

"The hat will put you where your personality best fits. You wouldn't want to end up in a house with individuals you cannot relate to." Viola wisely stated.

"I guess so," Neville shrugged. She ignored all the sounds of wonder from the other students as the castle came into view. Soon Viola and the rest of the first years were escorted through to the Great Hall. The only thing, the only person that held her attention was Quirrell. He looked the same, but what caught her attention was the pain in her scar as she looked at him.

It was only when the sorting hat began to sing did her attention depart from her mate's vessel. It was not until Neville went up that something deviated from the first time around. Instead of the hat calling out the house of the lions, it instead shouted at the top of it's nonexistent lungs, "HUFFLEPUFF!" She wondered why, but was glad nonetheless that Neville had taken her advice and gone where he belonged.

When Professor McGonagall called her name, the Great Hall became instantly silent. Viola almost wasn't able to contain her sigh, this celebrity thing never pleased her one bit. Viola noticed Dumbledore shift forward slightly in his seat and Quirrell's gaze was on her now along with Snape's and all the others in Great Hall. Without showing any emotion and with confident and elegant steps she walked toward the stool. The Sorting Hat was placed into her head.

"Well, what do we have here? Viola Potter the girl-who-lived and a little traveler from beyond our time, how quaint. I see what you went through and I'm sorry you had to suffer so much at such a young age." The Hat spoke into her mind. "Now let's see where to put you, hmm I could say difficult, but this doesn't translate you, child. I wouldn't sort you into Gryffindor, you are brave but would never fit there. Besides that you would fit at any other house." It said, as if it was asking her to choose her own house.

"Are you sure?" Viola asked silently

The hat peeked in her memories again, giving a knowing replied.

"You have such great loyalty, I've never seen one so big. But just to one person. You would betray anyone, but never him."

"Well, he is everything to me. He is the reason I came back. He is the only person I need." She snapped.

"Yes, but you won't fit with the 'Puffs. Too friendly to you." Viola nodded, she already knew this. Just thinking of her being with the Puffs gave her headaches. "You have a great knowledge about everything, Merlin, your thirst for knowledge is one of the greatest. Yet, I'm not sure about Ravenclaw. You will never open a school book, this I can see, because you already know everything. I know I put you in Gryffindor in your first life, but you and I both know that house was not my first choice, and I still stand by what I said to you back than, you would do great in Slytherin. The qualities which Salazar valued in the students he chose included cleverness, resourcefulness, determination, and a certain disregard for the rules, which all of these qualities you possess Viola Potter. So will you let me do the honor this time?"

"Yes, please."

There was a great expectation in the Great Hall, all who were present leaned forward to better hear the Hat's voice. The girl had been sitting there for a few minutes now, which had made everyone anxious. Everyone gasped when the Hat opened his mouth with a smirk.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Good luck." The Hat said before Viola removed it from her head and set it back on the stool, as Professor McGonagall had gone catatonic from the fact that the Potter's child could be a Slytherin. Viola glanced around, everyone seemed to have gone into shock. Viola had to bite her tongue to suppress the laughter that threatened to come out.

Everyone had a different expression on their face but the most amusing expression was Dumbledore's. He had a look of complete devastation on his face. Of course he thought she would be a Golden Gryffindor, a perfect pawn for him to use as he pleased, but her being in Slytherin would ruin most of his plans. 'It's only just the beginning' she thought to herself.

When her eyes landed on Slytherin table, they seemed to come out of the stupor and realize they just got the student whom every other houses wanted. They erupted into cheers that threatened to deafen the rest of the hall, Draco seemed to be the loudest. Some even went as far as to shout "hahaha!" over and over again at the despondent Gryffindor table. The Gryffindor's groaned as a whole at the thought of losing the Savior of the wizarding world to the Slytherins of all people. Viola elegantly walked toward the Slytherin table, ignoring all others. Draco and Theo shifted to make space for her to sit between them. Older students welcomed her, Slytherin prefect Marcus Flint patted her back as she joined the Slytherins."Welcome to family, but honestly I thought like everyone else that you would end up in Gryffindor," Draco cheerfully said.

"I have no idea why everyone thought I would be Gryffindor. The Hat even said I would not fit there," Viola replied.

"I bet this news will be on the front page in tomorrow's prophet, I'm Daphne Greengrass by the way." Viola shook hands with her and with the other Slytherin first years as they introduced themselves. Soon the sorting ended and the feast started. During the feast she ignored all those around her, only saying a few words now and then if necessary. After spending many years alone in her solitude, she had become quite the anti-social type. Viola scanned the Great Hall, trying not to focus on Quirrell, it was not the time yet. She smirked when she saw Dumbledore 's face darkened with anger, he hadn't even touch his food yet, no doubt still pissed off by her sorting.

She was here, Viola Potter the bane of his existence was here. He could feel the searing pain that he remembered from that night a decade ago, when he tried to killed that brat but instead he lost his body. He gritted his teeth, or rather Quirrell's teeth, trying to control his anger. The mere thought of that night was enough to send him into a fit of rage. He observed the brat without anyone's notice, she had long curly raven hair that flowed down her back, pale skin, thin lips, a skinny figure, yet her eyes were the part of her features that attracted him the most. Her eyes were the exact colour of his favorite curse, the killing curse. He had to admit she was quite pleasing to look at. He scowled at the train of his thought, it doesn't matter what's the little fiend look like, he will kill her soon and there wouldn't be any light champion to stop him.

However, there was something about her that screamed Darkness. He assumed that some of his magic was left on her after he lost body. The girl was staring at her plate ignoring everything around her. She was staring as if she was better than the other worms in this place just because she "vanquished" the Dark Lord. Whiny little fiend. She will be dead at the end of the school year and all of his obstacles will be out of the way except one, Dumbledore.

Now that was a bigger problem that he still had many plans for, but with the grace of all the goddess of war, and some luck, although he would never admit luck was required – Dumbledore would be dead in three years or so. As if feeling his gaze upon her, the little brat turned to look up at him. The girl flinched slightly, as if in pain at the very sight of him, and turned away. In that moment of eye contact he felt... something. She had a very dark aura, it reminded him of himself. In fact it sort of felt like his aura. But it was no matter. She would soon be dead.

After the moment that she looked Quirrell in the eyes she spent the rest of the dinner trying to control the pain, both in her forehead and in her heart. She wondered what Tom was thinking that made her scar hurt so badly, probably cursing her existence and plotting her demise she thought bitterly to herself. Luckily it wasn't long after those feelings that Dumbledore stood, he went through the same speech that she remembered. Forbidden Forest, third floor corridor, blah, blah, blah. Honestly why doesn't he just put a sign on the front door. Now when she thought about it, it's quite obvious he was hinting about the third floor corridor in a cryptic way maybe to get her interested so she would go there, how very Slytherin of him, she snorted.

She knew Dumbledore had planned a confrontation between her and Tom so they would fight each other and their hatred for the other would only increase. But what Dumbledore wasn't aware of is that Viola knew all his plans and tricks, none of his plans were going to succeed, she would make sure of that. The prefects escorted the first year Slytherins to dungeons. They soon came upon a stretch of wall that pulsed slowly with magic. She assumed that this was the doorway to their dorms.

"This is the entrance to the Slytherin common room. The password is Purus, that means pure in Latin." Their common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling, from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them. There were some really expensive looking black couches and armchairs as well, overall the room was lavish, it was incredible. After a little speech from the prefects about rules in Slytherin house all first year's went to bed. The best thing about Slytherin house is that here they would get their own room. Viola was happy about this, she was glad to have some privacy and silence.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The following morning at breakfast Viola chatted with her now two best friends, Draco and Theo. Viola realized she enjoyed Theo's company. While Draco was quite famous in Hogwarts, Theo was opposite of that. Viola did not remember ever seen Theo involved with any gang, or bully anyone from her past life. He was quiet and studious. She knew that the boy would grow up into a genius of sort. She remembered reading about Theo in Daily Prophet, he created a Time Tuner which allow the user to travel back in time as far as the user wanted and could stay at that time as long as they wanted as well. It was genius, she was impressed and awe by Theo's creation and potential. But it soon turned into disappointment when she read that the ministry was not impressed by the invention, and in result arrested him for keeping an unregistered Time Turner in his possession. Even though he used it only for experimenting to improve and to create a better Time Turner. As it was well known that Notts were a Dark family and followers of the Dark Lord, no one batted an eyelash and no one protested. He was sentenced to two months in Azkaban. Viola shook her head, the wizarding world is just rotten.

"Your schedule, Miss Potter." Viola took her timetable with a polite 'Thank You,' which earned her an odd look from Professor Snape. Perhaps he had not expected polite behavior from a Potter, she thought amusingly, she would never admit it out loud but she had missed him, the bat of the dungeon.

The first week of classes were... well boring for the young-in-body Slytherin. She thought that perhaps, when she got to her sixth or seventh year, she may have a bit of a challenge in some of the subjects she hadn't used much after leaving hogwarts. As far as her spellwork, she attempted not to seem too advanced for her age, she didn't need anyone or Goddess forbid Dumbledore getting suspicious of her. But she had made sure that she was still at the head of all her classes, after all she couldn't let Granger be first. Although Granger still stood in second behind her, she never will be the first, Viola will see to it.

All the Professors was impressed by her intelligence and spell casting, well all except Snape and Tom which was understandable. Though in Defence class she spent the whole time controlling the pain in her scar.The rage and loathing feeling that came through their bond, her own feeling of hurt and disappointment, caused her to barely be able to focus on the class that was going on. She thought if the pain did not stop soon then she would end up unconscious or crying hysterically. So she sent a wave of calm feelings toward him, trying to calm his rage at her. Tom instantly dropped the book he was holding in shock, she was sure Tom wasn't aware that she was feeling his emotions. Viola did not dare to raise her eyes to look him in the face for fear that the pain in her scar would increase.

The rage and loathing feeling was stopped replace by curiosity. It seemed to be helping, as the pain had lessened, although it still there. Viola relaxed back slightly, relishing in the rarity of the moment. They had come so far in such a short amount of time, from loathing, murderous animosity, and all over madness, to familiarity and acceptance. Viola didn't think Tom knew who he shared this connection with, but he was obviously pleased by the benefits. And Viola hadn't felt a murderous rage in quite some time… well except whenever he was in Viola Potter's presence, though he didn't have the slightest idea that Viola Potter and the person he shared the connection with were one in the same.

She wondered sometimes what his reaction would be at this revelation, happy or disappointment. She briefly entertained the idea of Tom been disappointed, but quickly dismissed those thoughts. The mere thought of Tom been disappointed on her was unbearable. Now all she could do is wait and hope for the best. She had noticed that this time around Quirrell didn't seem to stutter and this could only mean Tom had taken full possession of Quirrell's body, sharing her magic certainly had worked.

Flying lessons went... well differently. Since she sorted into the House of Snakes, Ronald Weasley seemed to never missed a chance to call Viola 'traitor' or 'Death Eater in training' whenever he saw her in corridors. Most of the time she just ignored him, but she certainly would not miss a chance for revenge when she saw one, so Viola silently jinxed Weasley's broom when no one was watching. Weasley's broom suddenly started to shake, which resulted in Weasley falling from his broom directly onto his bum and his wrist, which broke under the pressure, much to Slytherin's amusement. But it would seem however, she hadn't been as clever with her spell casting as she thought and when Viola was about to enter the Great Hall for lunch, she heard Weasley howl behind her.

"You, Potter!" The girl rolled her eyes and spun around to face the redheaded boy.

"Hey Weasley." She greeted him as if they were old friends. "Long time no see."

"I saw you, Potter," Ron sneered, "I saw you jinx my broom earlier." Viola simply crossed her arms over her chest and sighed.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do, you evil Snake," Ron continued. "I saw you pull out your wand Potter."

"I didn't do anything to your broom. You are a clumsy oaf, you probably don't know how to hold onto a broom. It's your own fault you fell, you Gryffintwit." The redheaded boy's face coloured, now closely resembling that of his ginger hair, which reminded her of Cherry.

"Take that back or I will-"

"Or you'll what Cherry? Flash sparks at me with your wand?" Viola continued, but Weasley wasn't happy. Weasley grabbed his wand and yelled an incantation towards her, when nothing but a small amount of light-green left his wand Viola smirked, seeming very amused.

"My turn." She grabbed her wand from her pocket.

"Flipendo!" the hex hit Ron immediately in his chest and the boy flew back some feet. Viola smiled sweetly at the sight of redhead boy laid out on the marble floor.

"What is going on here?" A stern male voice asked. Viola turned around to see Tom, arms crossed against his chest, and glaring at her and the Gryffindor.

"Nothing, we were just chatting. " She gave her best puppy dog look, but Tom didn't seem to buy it.

"She hexed me, Sir." Weasley yelled.

"Is that true?"

"No, actually Weasley tried to use the batbogie curse on me so I was just defending myself."

"She's lying, Professor." Weasley yelled, but Tom lifted his hand, quickly shutting him up.

"Ten points from Gryffindor and detention with Filch tonight at seven. And Ten point from Slytherin and detention with me tonight at six, understood, Miss Potter?"

"Yes Sir." She said sullenly.

At exact 6:03 she stood in front of the plank of wood that separated her and her anxiously awaiting soulmate. She was three minutes late and she could feel Tom's rage, her scar had already started to hurt. She stopped before she knocked, she took a calming breath, reaching a hand up to ensure that her hair was still neatly, twisted at the nape of her neck, Straightening her robes, she tilted her chin up slightly and knocked firmly on his door.

"Come."

She opened the door and there he was, sitting at his desk, looking at her coldly. He pointed to a desk with waiting parchment and quill. "You will copy the lines on the blackboard 500 times. If you don't finish 500 lines before the end of the detention, I will give you another one." Tom threatened. With a last glance at Tom's angry face, Viola hastily took her seat and got started. She didn't want to make Tom more angry than he already was with her.

The Dark Lord looked with satisfaction on the small dark headed girl bent industriously over the parchment, scratching busily. He was quite pleased with himself for being able to award detention to the Fiend-Who-Lived. Knowing he was responsible for the brat's very first punishment at Hogwarts would keep him happy for days. The little brat had been running around and hexing fellow students and thought she would get away with it by giving him a puppy dog look, arrogant little brat. Those relatives of hers and Dumbledore had spoiled the brat beyond belief. Showing off her power by hexing others, expecting the world to lay down at her feet just because she vanquished the Dark Lord by sheer luck, spoiled little brat, Tom gritted his teeth in anger. The Dark Lord turned his attention to the pile of homework in front of him. Let's see if the brat had any scholastic ability or her brain that had not gone rotten by fame.

Viola shifted uncomfortably on the wooden chair and stifle a sigh while rubbing her scar. The pain in her scar was worsening with every passing minute, and because of that she was barely able to focus on her writing. Her vision was blurring, but still she forced herself to write fast so she would be able to get away from here, she snorted at the irony of her thought. She came back for Tom, for moments like these, moments she had been longing for since the day those crimson red eyes lost their fire and the powerful reptilian body laid at Viola's feet. Now she had gotten what she wanted, but she couldn't even stand in his presence without being in pain.

She blinked rapidly to stop the tears that were threatening to fall, she knew Tom hate her. That hatred had only grown as his years in exile passed, she had prepared herself for it but she didn't knew it would be this bad. She had no plan to tell Tom about their connection anytime soon, at least not until she could get the stone. Viola knew Dumbledore expected Tom would attempt to steal the stone, and told Professor Snape to keep an eye on him too, but Dumbledore would never suspect her of trying to steal it. She would steal the stone for Tom under Dumbledore's very nose and no one would be the wiser, she smirked at that thought.

The Dark Lord put down the homework with a thoughtful look. The brat isn't as stupid as he thought she would be. The girl has potential and it shows in her assignment. He assumed Dumbledore had been teaching the brat, training her so she would be able to defeat him. This would also explain her strong magical aura, her magic is more powerful and better controlled than any first year, even any other Hogwarts student. It's truly a shame to kill someone so capable. He wondered briefly if maybe somehow he would be able to convince her to join his side, but quickly dismissed the thought. There's no way the Potter brat would join someone who had killed her parents. No, he had to kill the girl before she got even more powerful and further trained by Dumbledore. He wasn't going to allow the light to win, he couldn't.

"I'm finished, Sir." That bought the Dark Lord out of his daydream, he turned to look at Viola, who stood near his desk, holding the parchment. Tom took the parchment to check, but one look at it was enough to make him beyond furious. The lines were all splotches and splattered, Devil knows, a house elf would have better handwriting than this and there was misspellings too. Clearly the brat was deliberately handing him appalling work. Was she trying to mock him? How dare she mock him, HIM, The Dark Lord. Never before in his life had Tom been treated with such overt disobedience. Tom removed his eyes from parchment and looked Viola in the eyes. Quirrell's eyes briefly flashed red which made Viola go pale.

"What do you call this?" Tom demanded icily, extending the parchment between two fingers, as if it was disdaining to touch such a contaminated item.

"It-It's my li-lines, Sir. " Viola stuttered, her eyes began to water.

"Do you imagine that I can actually read this disgusting handwriting?" Tom sneered.

"You made comments." Viola pointed out uncertainty, then jumped when Tom slammed the parchment down on the desk.

"I will not tolerate insolence, Potter." Tom's voice was a menacing hiss and to Dark Lord's horror Potter burst into tears.

He stopped through another remark, utterly nonplussed as the Girl-Who-Lived suddenly dissolved into hysterical tears in front of him. He felt a guilty prod deep in his stomach from his conscience. Why he was feeling guilty? He had no idea, hadn't he wanted to make her cry, suffer like he had suffered? Then Why did he felt so terrible upon seeing her tearful face? All he knew was that he didn't want to see her cry anymore.

"Miss Potter-" Tom hesitantly began, unsure of what to say. Other than Bellatrix LeStrange and Narcissa Malfoy, he rarely dealt with women, and neither of them was the crying type. His anger changed into discomfort. "I-I'm sorry Pr-professor. " she sobs. "I di-didn't mean t-to di-disrespect you. "

"Miss Potter, I'm sure you have good reason for your mistake. But first I want you to stop crying... immediately. " He ordered. His voice, if not his words, seemed to call her back to herself and she wiped her eyes quickly. Belatedly, he pulled a handkerchief from the pocket of his robes and offered it to her. The girl stared at the handkerchief as if she had never seen a handkerchief before. As she accepted it, that made him feel, if it was possible, even more uncomfortable. He waited patiently to allow her enough time to wipe her eyes and to calm down before he spoke again.

"Now explain Miss Potter, why did you hand me such an appalling handwriting filled parchment?"

"To be honest Professor, my scar was hurting so badly I wasn't able to focus on my writing. I didn't mean to disrespect you, Sir. " She answered truthfully. She felt horrible that she had started sobbing like a child in front of Tom, she knew Tom doesn't like weakness, she silently curse herself. The day hadn't even ended and she had broken down, she didn't think she would be able to suffer this pain in her scar for a whole year. So she decided to give a hint to Tom in hopes that he would stop cursing her existence. As she mentioned her scar Tom's eyes immediately shot up on her forehead.

"Your scar... hurt? Has it always hurt? When did it begin to hurt?" Tom blurted out.

"My scar never hurt before.The first time it started to hurt was in your Defence class, and then again when I entered this room."

Tom thought to himself, 'That's... interesting. Why does her scar hurt in my presence? Was it somehow linked to my emotions?' He needed time to figure it out.

"Very well, I'm ignoring your mistake this time, you will write the same lines 700 times and hand them to me tomorrow before Dinner, is that clear?" Viola just nodded her head, and stared at him with huge green eyes. "You're dismissed." Viola stood up and walked toward the door, feeling Tom's eyes on her back as she hastily walked out of the room, leaving the Dark Lord who seemed too lost in deep thoughts, pondering this new information.


	6. Chapter 6

"Quiet, you say"

It has only been a few weeks and Dumbledore has already requested Severus's presence in his office to inquire about Viola Potter, though he wasn't surprise. He'd known once The-Girl-Who-Lived arrived at Hogwarts the peace of his life would be gone, and having her in his house hadn't help. But surprisingly having Potter in his house wasn't as bad as he had assumed it would be. He, like everyone else had thought Viola Potter would be a Gryffindor. He had expected a mirror image of his most hated adversary, James Potter returned in the flesh, proudly sitting underneath the hat before it shouted out the house of red and gold as the whole Hall cheered and applauded. He thought that hatred would come easily to him, that he would despise this girl as much as he despised her father. But it turned out to be the completely opposite of what he had expected.

Viola Potter was the spitting image of Lily Evans. She shared many features with her late mother; same cheekbones, thin lips, striking green eyes, but she had her father's messy black hair. Viola was a calm, collected, reserved and quiet young girl. He'd attempted to call her out on her first day of potions class, just to see if she had any of the academic talent of her mother or if she was brain dead like her father. But he was shocked when she answered each and every one of his questions, even those that some of his NEWT students wouldn't have been able to answer. She was well read and had a deft hand at potions.

Not at all what Severus had expected. Not at all like James Potter, which Severus did not think is a bad thing, if anything he was glad that she was not a clone of her father. But Dumbledore did not seem to share his sentiment.

Severus stirred his tea idly, not looking up. "Yes."

"Has she made any friends yet? " Dumbledore asked, his brow furrowed with deep thought.

Severus paused and threw him a searching look. "She seems to be close with Malfoy and Nott, as well with the other Slytherins. She does not have any enemies. Even among the other houses, except the young new Mr. Weasley. I, myself have caught them several times quarrelling in corridors. "

"Hmmm, and what is your opinion about her, personally?" His gaze flickered toward Potter's homework assignments that lay on his desk.

"She's better than the other dunderheads I usually have to teach. She's exceeding in all her classes. I'm sure you have heard the same from her other Professors." He took a sip of his tea. "It's a miracle that she has any academic talent at all, considering who her father is. I thought she would be a rule breaker or a prankstar like James Potter." Dumbledore nodded his head but stayed quiet, leaning back in the chair, still staring at the parchments with a worried look on his face.

Severus paused and stared at Dumbledore with suspicion. He didn't seem to understand what there was to worry about. "I'm afraid I do not see the issue in this," he confessed. "She is a good student and a polite girl. Shouldn't you be happy about this fact?"

"Oh, I am." He said distractedly. "She appears to be quite brilliant indeed. Very bright and promising, quiet, reserved. A young first year with great power and potential, sorted into Slytherin... " A look of remembrance appeared on his face briefly, whom Potter reminded him of he had no idea. The potion master was not sure if he wanted to know. Dumbledore shook his head and sighed, "What about Quirinus?"

"He seems to be...different. There's some changes in his behavior, I'm sure you also have noticed." Dumbledore nodded his head in agreement. "But I'm not sure about his involvement with the Dark Lord."

The two sat in silence, a long silence, well for Severus it was long. His patience was running thin. He just wished to go back to his quarters, back to his brewing. Thankfully Dumbledore seemed to be back from his daydream, turned to him with a smile.

"Thank you Severus, for your time. I know how thin it can be during the term."

He nodded, glad to be dismissed, and got up to made his way toward the door.

"Oh, and Severus?" He called. Severus paused, holding the door knob.

"Yes?" He asked without looking at him.

"Keep an eye on her."

But this was a foregone conclusion.

If Dumbledore hadn't said anything, he still would keep an eye on her. Through his observations so far he had noticed some alarming behaviors in Potter. The girl was too short and too skinny compared to any other eleven year old child. She also ate too little, flinched whenever someone touched her and always seemed to be on her guard. He had to admit Potter was very good at concealing her emotions, she always had a blank expression.

Snape had similar behaviors, he himself had been like that when he was at her age. Through his observations he had come to one conclusion, abuse. But that couldn't be true, could it? When he heard that Dumbledore had placed Lily's child in Petunia's care, he had confronted the old man, told him that Petunia was unfit to take on the responsibility of the girl knowing how much she hated magic. But Dumbledore had assured him that Petunia was taking good care of the girl, the spies the old man had placed in Privet Drive had informed him that the girl was happy at her aunt and uncle's house. Had all of that been lies? He didn't know what to believe, but one thing was certain, if he find out Dumbledore had been lying to him about Potter's home life, then he would make the old man pay.

"Did you read the Daily Prophet this morning?" Draco asked as Viola sit beside Theo in Slytherin table for lunch.

"No, was there something interesting?" Viola asked.

"Yes, it said that someone has broken into one of the vaults in Gringotts to steal something, but the vault was empty."

"Whoever broke into Gringotts must be a powerful wizard or witch. No one has ever dared to break into Gringotts. The whole place is heavily sealed and guarded with powerful ancient goblin magic, it's considered one of the safest place in our world. To be capable of breaking into there, that guy had to be something." Theo declared. If he only knew who had broken into Gringotts.

"Draco thinks whatever that guy was after, Dumbledore is hiding that in third floor corridor." Theo said with a sigh.

"What makes you think that?" Viola raised her brow as she asked. She already knew Draco was right. She was impressed that he figured it out so soon, while it took her months to come to that conclusion the first time around.

"Come on guys, you don't really think it's a coincidence that some guy broke into Gringotts to steal something, but the vault was empty and than Dumbledore announced not to go into the third floor corridor if you don't want to die a painful death? It was clear the way Dumbledore said, he is hiding something in third floor corridor, and I bet all Malfoy's galleons it was the same thing that the guy was after." Draco said with confident, while looking at Viola, hoping she would agree with his theory.

Theo sighed. "We are planning to go into the third floor corridor tonight, to see if there's any truth to Draco's theory. Will you come with us?" Viola looked from Theo to Draco and then back to Theo again. They were both looking at her expectantly. She sighed. It doesn't matter if she goes with them or not, they will go anyway, and sooner or later they will figure out everything. It would be better if she could tell them now and save all the trouble. With a final look around her, she grabbed a hold of her wand and cast the 'Muffliato' spell. Soon all the noises in the Great Hall disappeared around them.

"Wow, no one can hear us now, can they?" Theo asked. Looking impressed with her spell work.

"No they can't. Anyway there's no need to go to third floor corridor, I know what's there and what Dumbledore is hiding." As she said those words Draco and Theo leaned closer to her, looking at her with their full attention.

"And what is that?" Asked Draco.

"The Philosopher's Stone." She said matter-of-factly.

Draco looked clueless. "What's that?"

"Wait, I know what that is. The Philosopher's Stone is a legendary stone, that can transform any metal into pure gold and also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone." Theo said as his mind worked rapidly to recall this new information.

Draco's agape, eyes widened. " It can make someone immortal, you say? Merlin's beard, no wonder someone wants to get their hands on it." Viola nodded in agreement, but remained quiet.

"Do you know who is after it?" Theo asked as they both turned their attention to her.

"Yes, The Dark Lord." She stated softly.

They both gaped at her with their eyes widened for few seconds before Draco said, "B-But h-he's dead." Draco stuttered as Theo nodded in agreement.

Viola looked at him with a serious expression. "You really think that the Dark Lord can be killed so easily? He, who is known as the most powerful and feared Dark Lord to have ever lived, you have to be a dumb to believe that."

"But if the Dark Lord is alive, he is after the stone and the stone is in Hogwarts, that means... " Viola had to bite back her urge to laugh as she watched Draco looking around nervously as if he was expecting Tom to come out of thin air. Theo's look was no better either. It amused her how the mere mention of Tom's name could bring so much fear in someone, even those who had never seen him.

Though if truth be told there was a time when she also used to fear him like everyone else. When she first heard about him, that he wanted her head, she had never said so but all she felt was fear. As time went by she got used to the idea of a madman out there somewhere, out for her blood. But this was not how she imagined her life would be like in wizarding world. She came to Hogwarts, ragged, miserable, stubborn and ambitious. In her heart she had carried a secret, a desperate hope that perhaps things at Hogwarts would be better than at the Privet Drive. However, she arrived at Hogwarts only to find out that things were not better. Viola had realized that the teenage years of her life, that her whole life had been planned out for her. The plan to kill her own soulmate.

"Merlin's beard, what was that old goat thinking? Bringing such a stone in a school full of children of all places to hide, is he mad?" Theo said coldly.

Draco huffed. "My father always said that the old man is barmy and insane," he sneered. "I just realised now how true his words are."

There was a pause, and suddenly all three of them burst into laughter.

Unnoticed, Voldemort watched Potter as she laughed with her two friends. A few days has passed and he was still figuring out why he had such an effect on her through her scar. But he was happy to know that he had such effect on her, that he could cause Potter pain without even casting a spell, this amused him to no end. He decided this could be useful in the future, if Potter caused any problems for him. As amusing as this was, it was also a serious matter that could not be ignore. He knew Potter's scar was a cursed scar, but still having this kind of effect on her was not normal. But it was no matter, he would solve this problem soon enough.

Thinking about Potter's scar brought his thoughts to another mysterious person whom he shared a rare connection with, who was sharing their magic with him, magic that had helped him to possess Quirrell's body. He had a very good idea what this connection was, but to know that there is someone out there who cares for him enough to share her or his magic with him, it felt...good. He would never admit it, but he was disappointed and hurt that his followers, whom he considered as his family, had not sought him out after he was forced to flee the wizarding world after failing to kill the Potter's child. No one never even tried to look for him after he disappeared, no one except The LeStranges and Crouch Jr. He wasn't a stupid wizard; he knew, deep down they had all but given up on him during that last year before he'd met his untimely end. He surmised that this was why none of his loyal followers had tried too hard to look for him. To them he had crossed a line, trying to hunt down and kill a one-year-old girl, especially those who had children in his own circle. His hastiness and obsession had been his downfall.

If he had listened to the others perhaps things would have been different. He knew his followers had lost a great deal of respect for him, due to his past actions. Once he got his body back he would try to earn their respect and loyalty again, he couldn't win this war if his own followers feared him or were dishonest with him. Also he had to get his faithful followers out of Azkaban, especially The LeStranges, they had been his most faithful followers; thirteen years stuck in that hell hole with Dementors for company, he'd be lucky to have them back sane. His other faithful follower, Severus Snape, sat beside him, eating his lunch silently. Before his downfall if anyone had questioned him about Severus's loyalty, he would had said without a doubt and with no hesitation that he was loyal to him. But now, he wasn't sure. The man is such a good spy that even he, who is known as the most accomplished Legilimens, couldn't say where that man's loyalty lay, although he would never admit it, NEVER. He sighed, there was so much to be done, but first he would have to get the stone. He already had formed a plan, he will try to get the stone on Halloween.


	7. Chapter 7

On Halloween morning they all woke up to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. All the students were excited about the feast, especially the young first year students, as it was their first Halloween at Hogwarts and they were excited to see how Hogwarts celebrated the day. All were happy, well all except one, Viola Potter. How could she be happy on such a dreadful day of her life, the day when her life had gone to hell. The day when her parents had died, the day when her soulmate had lost his body, the day when they became enemies. How could she be happy on a day like this? So when all the Slytherin students went to feast, she excused herself saying that she had an essay to complete. Theo and Draco didn't argue, they knew very well why their friend had been upset since morning. So they also stayed with Viola to give her company. Viola had protested at first, but gave up after a while, seeing no way to convince them otherwise.

So here they were, sitting near the fireplace, each working on their own essays.

"I'm done." Draco said in relieved voice.

"Let's go to Great Hall, then." Theo had finished his work some time ago and was just waiting for his friends to finish. "I'm hungry."

"No need to go there." Viola said slowly as she closed her essay and putting them carefully on her bag. "I know a better place. The kitchens are on second corridor, let's go there. We will be all alone except the house elves."

"Lead the way, then."

They walked lazily through the dungeons on their way to the second floor corridor when they detected a horrible, putrid smell, stopping them in their tracks.

"Do you smell something?" Draco asked, sniffling as the foul stench reached his nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the stench of an unclean public toilet.

Theo put his hands over his nose in an attempt to stop the smell from reaching his nostrils. "It smells like a toilet," he answered as Draco nodded his head in agreement.

But Viola stood frozen in fear, unable to answer, as dread consumed her. 'Stupid, stupid Viola.' She cursed herself in her mind, 'how could you just forget that today is the day when your precious soulmate had set a troll lose free to create a distraction?'

She looked at the boys, "Guys, I think we should head back to our common room." She said in a low and deliberate voice.

"Why?" questioned Draco.

But Viola didn't have to explain any further. Both boys watched as Viola's eyes widened and a frightened look appeared across her face as her eyes fixed on something ahead of them. The boys followed her gaze and nearly fainted as they saw the source of the incredible stench. In all their lives they never had witnessed something so horrible, as a twelve foot tall troll came into their view. It's skin was a dull, granite gray, it's great lumpy body like a boulder with it's small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs, thick as a tree trunks, and flat horny feet. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor as it's arms were so long.

"Is that what I think it is?" whispered Draco in a low voice with full of dread. His face was so twisted as if he was going to cry or scream at any moment.

"Yes." Viola replied matching his tone.

The troll stopped walking and turned it's ugly face towards the three young first years as it suddenly sensed their presence. The troll stared at them stupidly for few seconds but than it seemed to tire of staring and quickly shuffled closer to the trio while raising its club to strike.

Draco screamed like a little girl as the troll began to advance towards them.

The troll seemed to be intrigued by the tasty odor of human flesh coming from the noisy little creatures. "Food!" it exclaimed and hurried after the young three firsties.

"RUN!" Viola yelled and they ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction, as if a demon from hell was after them. As they ran for their lives the portraits along the corridor shouted words of encouragement, advice, and warnings to the young firsties. "He's coming closer! Run faster! Run faster!"

They ran so quickly that they weren't paying attention to where they were going, and soon they came to a dead end.

"In here." Theo shouted as he found a door on his left and held it open for his friends to go inside. After they were inside Theo shut the door and stood as far away from the door as possible. Thuds echoed through the corridor, as the troll got closer. The young Slytherins shrank back against the wall of the abandoned classroom in fright, praying their best hope to the heavens that the weak, wooden door would be able to hold back that monstrous thing preventing it from getting inside.

But their prayers seemed to all be in vain as the troll broke the door with a single bang. The troll's eyes lit up as it saw little human creatures crowded together in the corner of the room. "Urrrrr! Food!" It stumbled forward, lifting its club.

"We are dead." Draco whimpered.

Viola swore and cursed herself for fiftieth times for forgetting this day. She raised her wand as the troll come towards them with its club raised high, Viola yelled the spell she always used whenever she came face-to-face with death. "Expelliarmus."

Though it was just a simple disarming spell, this spell had always been lucky for her. She had escaped near death all her life with just this spell. So, she quickly decided it would not hurt to try it again, perhaps with some miracle this spell might save their lives, as it has never failed her in the past. Well, never failed her until now. Because the spell had no effect on the troll.

"That's the best you can come up with?" Draco asked incredulously.

"Why don't you do something then if you think you know better." Viola snapped.

He opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by Theo's angry voice, "Stop arguing. Do something. EVERTE STATUM. " Theo yelled, even though the spell was a good one it was not powerful enough to throw the troll backward.

As a result the troll just seemed to become irritated. The troll ran at him and smashed its club into the wall where he stood, if he hadn't lowered his head at just the right time he would have been dead and his brains would have spilled all over the wall. The troll grabbed Theo by his neck with his other hand and lifted him up, opening its mouth wider and wider as if to swallow Theo alive. But before that thing could do anything worse to her friend, Viola pointed her wand at the beast and yelled the first curse that came into her head.

"SECTUMSEMPRA." Putting as much magic into it as she could. That did the trick, as soon as the curse hit the troll's back a deep cut appeared and blood started to fall from the wounds like waterfall. The troll howled in pain and dropped Theo and the club at the same time.

"Locomotor Mortis." Draco cast the spell making the troll legs locked together. Unable to move his legs the troll fell backward, hitting his head on the wall in the process. The troll fell to the floor with a thud causing the whole room tremble. After the fall the room was eerily quiet as the unconscious troll lay where he fell, blood pooling from its wounds onto the floor.

Viola ran toward Theo, helping him to stand. "You alright?" He nodded his head.

"Is it... dead?" Asked Theo, shaking and breathing heavily. He looked as pale as a ghost. Draco stood there with his wand still raised, staring at the fallen mountain troll. "Who cares."

Theo sucked in a shaky breath, "For a moment when that troll grabbed my neck and lifted me up, I was so bloody scared, I thought I was going to die."

"Can't blame you there mate." Draco said.

The young Slytherins stood there for a moment, staring at the fallen troll in silence. Escaping from near death was nothing new for Viola. Since she had arrived at Hogwarts all she had been doing was escaping death. There hadn't been a year at Hogwarts when someone hadn't tried to kill her, after all those attempts on her life, it was truly a miracle that she was still living. So you can say, having nearly been killed by a troll wasn't all that surprising for her. But the same could not be said for the young boys whom she had come to care for. She wouldn't be surprised if it was the first time they had experienced such a horrible event. She squeezed Theo's hand.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps broke the silence. They hadn't realized the racket they had made battle the troll. Of course, someone would have heard the crash and the troll's roars, or maybe even they had been summoned by those hysterical portraits the trio came across while they were running.

"Now they come." Draco muttered to himself.

A moment later, Professors McGonagall, Quirrell and Snape had come bursting into the room through the broken wall were the door used to be. One look at the fallen troll and Quirrell bent over its body to see if it was alive.

Professor McGonagall looked at the three Slytherins angrily. "What on earth were you thinking of?" Professor McGonagall began with cold fury in her voice, but the instant Draco saw Professor Snape, he threw himself at the tall man, clinging to his robes. Draco sobbed that the beast had nearly killed them and that it had almost swallowed Theo alive. Viola glanced at Theo, who seemed like he wanted to sob too but instead he simply grabbed Viola's hand.

Snape held Draco close and patted his back."It's alright now, it's over. Are you hurt?" Holding Draco out at arm's length to look for any injury. Draco sniffled and shook his head. "It was just so scary."

Viola was not surprise by the affection Snape was showing, she had known Snape cared for Draco, so much so that he had even given his life to protect the boy. Draco was the only person she had ever seen Snape to show genuine affection for. While he had protected Viola out of obligation or out of guilt, he had protected Draco because he loved the blond boy like his own son. She remembered how angry Snape was when she cursed Draco in her sixth year in girl's bathroom. He had been so angry, she was sure he would have used Avada Kedavra right there if only she had not been Lily Evans child. She turned her eyes from them and noticed Tom was looking her over so intently, almost as if he was looking into her soul, which made her nervous.

Was he angry at her for ruining his plan again? 'Of course, he is, you idiot.' She thought to herself, scowling in her mind. But no matter she would soon make up for it, she promised, by stealing the stone for him herself.

"Why aren't you in your dormitory?" Professor Snape asked in a stern voice while glaring at the trio.

It was Theo who answered. "We stayed behind in common room to do our homework. We were on our way to the Great Hall when we came across that thing. " He pointed to the troll still lying motionless on the stone floor.

"You didn't know there was a troll in dungeons?" Asked McGonagall. The trio shook their heads in unison.

Professor Snape pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "You three go back to dormitory, the remaining feast will be in common room, and don't you dare wander off anywhere else. Straight back to the dormitory, understand?" He instructed with a glare, the trio again nodded their heads in unison. "And 20 points to Slytherins each for defeating a mountain troll by sheer luck." His lips turned upward a little at that. "You may go."

They hurried out of the room and didn't speak at all on their way. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else. Both boys were still shaken, Theo still had not let go of Viola's hand, and Draco walked so closely on Viola's left side that their shoulders brushed against one another as they walked. They had reached the blank wall of their common room. "Parselmouth," they said and entered.

The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent. As they entered Daphne, Pansy and Blaise appeared in front of them. They seem to be annoyed.

"Where were you three? We were looking for you lot." Daphne started questioning.

"You weren't in the feast or down here, do you know a troll has gotten into Hogwarts? And what happened to you three? You look like you have been dragged through hell." Blaise asked, as his eyes narrowed at them.

"Troll happened, it had nearly kill us all."

"What?" The other Slytherins questioned at the same time.

"And you are still amongst the living?"

"What does it look like?" Draco snapped.

"How did you all escape?"

Others started questioning them all at once. While Draco explained everything to the rest of the Slytherins, Viola and Theo hurried off to get some food. As they ate they listened as Draco puffed out his chest and told everyone how bravely he had fought with the troll and his amazing spell casting which made the troll fall. Theo and Viola shared an amused look, but did not correct Draco. Soon they forgot about the horrible event and chatted merrily together.

Viola Potter, the bane of his existence, had again thwarted his well formed plan. How She kept infuriating him. He scowled as he stared into the fireplace in his quarters. It would have been better if the troll had just killed the girl, a lot of his problems would have solved. But no, instead the troll himself had almost died while the Potter brat stood there unharmed, without even a single scratch.

The fates must hate him. He had no idea how Potter and her little friends had defeated a fully grown mountain troll. What powerful magic had Dumbledore being teaching her? He had to get rid of that brat soon. It also seemed Severus suspected him of seeking the stone, as he had expressed his desire to help him. However, he had refused Severus's offer and denied that he wanted the stone for himself. Tom wasn't sure about Severus's motives, all these years staying with Dumbledore may have change his loyalty. No, he couldn't take any risks. He sighed, he had to form a new plan.


	8. Chapter 8

As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy gray and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Hagrid could be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in his long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaver skin boots.

The Quidditch season had begun. On this morning the first Quidditch match had been held in the Quidditch field, Slytherin vs Gryffindor. Predictably Gryffindor had lost the match, seeing that there was no Potter seeker this time for them, and the Gryffindor seeker was nowhere near as good as Viola was. The Slytherin seeker, Terence Higgs, caught the Snitch and ensured Slytherin remained undefeated in the rivalry for now eight years running. Viola missed her Quidditch days. She decided she would try to get onto the team next year. With her seeker skills she was certain she would make the team and become the first Slytherin female player.

Following the victory the common room was crowded. The Slytherin team, seniors and juniors, and all of the students had gathered to celebrate their team's victory. They all celebrated by singing songs, eating food (which had been snuck in from the kitchens), and chatting merrily. Viola and the two boys sat near the fireplace. While Viola was reading a book, Theo and Draco seemed to giving each other odd looks when they thought she wasn't looking. Clearly they wanted to say something to her, but she didn't know what was holding them back.

She was getting tired of the odd looks they were sharing, so she snapped the book shut and turned toward them.

"What is it?" She asked, her eyes looking back and forth between the two boys.

Theo hesitated. "You were right about third floor corridor. Draco and I went there to see it ourselves, and you won't believe what we found. A three headed dog was guarding a trapped door."

"So you doubted me... "

"We didn't doubt you. We were just curious and wanted to see it ourselves," Draco said immediately.

"But that's not what we want to talk about." He shared a look with Draco and carried on, "We don't know if you're aware or not, but our parents are a big supporters of the Dark Lord. Both of our fathers are members of his inner circle..." He paused. Viola made a gesture for him to continue. "If you-know-who is really alive then he will return one day and sooner or later you will have to make a choice about which side you want to be on."

"No one knows why the Dark Lord went after you that day, but my father once let it slip that it was something to do with a prophecy. That you will one day kill the Dark Lord. So what we want to know is would you fight against him if he were to come back?" Draco asked.

Aha. So they are worried that she will join the light side and become their enemy considering both of their parents are on the dark side. If only they knew what a scheme she had been plotting since she came back in time. She decided to put their worries in rest. "I know people expect me to fight with the big bad Dark Lord and get rid of him for them. But I'm no fool and neither am I arrogant enough to believe that I would be able to fight and defeat someone like you-know-who." She paused. "I know my parents supported Dumbledore and fought against the dark side. And I know I should hate the Dark Lord seeing that he killed my parents. But still I couldn't bring myself to blame him. It was a time of war and my parents were his enemy, just like he was for them.They were in his way so he did what anyone would have done. I'm sure the light side had killed their fair share of the Dark Lord's followers but you don't see those people showing any regret about that. And besides it's not like the Dark Lord was after my parent's life from the start for no reason. I know for a fact that he had offered for my parents to join him, including my Muggleborn mother, three times, but they refused. They made their choice, they were adults, I'm sure they were aware of the consequences of partaking in a war." Viola paused. She took a deep breath, "I don't know what my parents saw in Dumbledore, because all I see in him is a senile old man whose brain has damage from sucking too many lemon drops, and I will never join the likes of him." She spat.

The boys sighed in relief at her statement. They both gave her a look of understanding.

"Would you have stop being my friend if I said otherwise?" She asked.

"Nah, maybe we would have tried to talk you out of it or at least convinced you to stay neutral, but we would never stop being friends, even if you choose the light side." Draco said in a voice that made Viola believe him. Theo nodded his head in agreement flashing a small smile at Viola

"Thanks." She murmured.

"Do you think you-know-who is here?" Theo asked her, looking eager to know.

"I don't think he's here, I know he's here."

"But where? Is he hiding somewhere in the castle?" Draco asked, looking deep in thought.

"No... He possessed Professor Quirrell." She said matter-of-factly. Both boys gaped at her, it took them a minute to come out of their stupor.

Theo shook his head. "It can't be true. Quirrell really? He doesn't even seem the type."

"Well obviously if he possessed Quirrell he would act like the less suspicious person. Come on, he's the big bad Dark Lord, give him some credit." Viola grinned at them while the boys looks terrified.

"But...how do you know for sure?" Asked Theo, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Because my scar hurts in his presence and the scar never hurt before in all my life." She didn't lied just concealed some truth that in this version of her life it had yet to hurt before encountering Quirrell and the Dark Lord . It's not that she did not trust them, because she did, she just didn't want to share her connection to Tom with them. Not yet at least.

Theo mouthed 'Oh'. Both boys widened eyes were fixed on her scar, which was covered by her bangs.

"Stealing the stone would be like a piece of cake for him if he has so easily fooled everyone, including the great Dumbledore." Draco smirked.

"I think he already knows who Quirrell is. I know he's an insane and barmy old man, but I wouldn't put anything past him. The real question is if he knows who Quirrell really is then why hasn't he taken any action against him?" Theo's brain worked furiously on this new information, suspicion clearly spread across his face.

"Because the old man wants me to fight and to stop the big bad Dark Lord from stealing the stone. He wants to test me." Viola said to confirm Theo's claim.

The boys looked horrified at the idea of facing you-know-who, just like she was in her first life when she realized at the end of the term that it was all a setup plot orchestrated by Dumbledore. Oh, how horrified she was then, but she never said a word. She never complained, she just kept following the old goat like a loyal puppy dog.

"Why am I not surprise." Draco muttered angrily.

"That explains the lack of wards on the door."

"But I have another plan. I want to help the Dark Lord by stealing the stone myself and thwarting Dumbledore's plot. What do you think?" Viola grinned at the boys who grinned back. They both looked back at her with mischievous looks on their faces.

"Let's do it. Sooner or later the Dark Lord will return anyway. What does it matter if he returns now or three years later." Theo reasoned. The trio looked at each other and burst out laughing.

Christmas had arrived. Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several piles of snow. The lake was frozen solid. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health before they could fly off again. The Slytherin common room had a roaring fire but it wasn't enough to keep the common room warm. The dungeons were so cold that their breath rose in a mist before them.

Predictably, Viola had stayed at Hogwarts for the Christmas. Professor Snape had come around two weeks before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays, and Viola had signed up at once. Surprisingly, Theo had stayed behind too. He had informed his father that he wanted to stay at Hogwarts with his friend. His father hadn't objected. Draco had gone home for the holidays. He wanted to stay but Mrs. Malfoy had demanded him to come home, so he did as he was told.

Aside from these two, three other older Slytherins had also stayed at Hogwarts. And like her first life all the Weasleys were there too. A certain redhead Weasley had become surprisingly more unbearable than he already was, especially since the Quidditch match. Disgusted that Gryffindor had lost again, he kept exclaiming how unfairly Slytherin had won with their evil tricks, and taunted Viola more whenever they crossed paths in the corridors. Viola just ignored him, she had no interest in arguing with the likes of him.

But Draco, being the proud Malfoy he was, would not take any insult kindly, most certainly not from a Gryffindor and a Weasley at that, so Draco had equally taunted him back, insulting him about how poor his family was. They would badmouth each other until a Professor or a prefect came to stop them. With everything happening Viola was glad to have some peaceful time. She was also secretly happy because she was going to be getting her father's invisibility cloak soon. Oh, all the things she could do with the cloak, the cloak was very useful and would help her in so many ways. She had missed it all these months. Just two more days now and it would mysteriously turn up as a Christmas gift.

Viola was now walking in the cold dungeons with Theo. He had dragged her out of the common room because he wanted to go to library to look for a book on God knows what. So here they were now. Walking side by side, shivering in the cold.

"Agh, I just hate the cold. Why don't the Professors put some more fireplaces or heat in dungeons? Obviously dungeons are the coldest places in the whole castle considering they are basically under the water, but no they just don't seem to care how students here in the dungeons survive the winter," Viola spat angrily.

"That's what happens when you trust the school to a barmy old Gryffindor." Theo rolled his eyes and sneered. "I'm sure if he could, he would have redecorated the Gryffindor common room in gold and diamonds, but never would have done anything for the rest of us, especially for the Slytherins. He's a bigot and prejudiced, favoring the Gryffindors over anyone else. And the worst part is he does not even try to hide his obvious favoritism." He said in an angry voice. Viola nodded her head.

She agreed with him wholeheartedly. She remembered how unfairly Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore had rewarded her a place on the Gryffindor team for breaking the rule instead of punishing her. She was sure if anyone else had been in her place and had done that, they surely would have gotten a detention. And even worse, at the end of her first term, Dumbledore literally cheated a hard-won House Cup away from the true winner and handed it to Gryffindors. And for what? For breaking all the Hogwarts rules and going after a grown Dark Lord like a bunch of thoughtless brats, he basically rewarded Gryffindors for being successful in his own setup plot while the Slytherins who worked so hard to win the House Cup sat in shock, no masks could hide their hurt and anger over what Dumbledore had done. Professor Snape had been fuming, and if looks could kill, Dumbledore surely would have been dead back then.

She never thought about these things when she was a Gryffindor. She was happy about being able to help her house to win the House Cup, she didn't care how many people had been hurt by the late points. And now when she thought about these things it was no wonder that all the Slytherins used to loathe her so much back then. Viola felt a pang of guilt rising inside her, and swallowed a lump in her throat. 'None of this will happen this time,' she reminded herself. Because she was no Gryffindor now. She was a Slytherin, she always had been, the hat placed her in Gryffindor only because she literally begged him to place her somewhere, anywhere else. If she had only let the hat sort her into her rightful house back then her life would have been so much easier.

The two friends entered the library and went to the nearest bookcase. Viola immediately spotted Neville there, holding a book. Being in different houses made it difficult for her to spend time with him. She did not see much of him except in herbology. She headed toward him, Theo followed behind while glancing at the books as they passed.

"Hi there, Neville, how are you?" She asked. Smiling kindly when she saw his startled face.

"Er...Hi" He said shyly, "I didn't hear you coming."

"Yeah, you seemed so lost in that book. What is it about?" She pointed to the book in his hand.

"Oh this, nothing just about different plants and all."

"You love herbology, don't you? You are top in that class." She said, while Neville went pink at the praise.

"I'm not that good." He said shyly, blushing.

"Don't be so modest. You are the best in herbology, a natural herbologist. Maybe Neville you can help us in herbology too. You see Theo and I are having some difficult in that subject. Would you like to do a study group with us?" Neville looked at her with wide eyes now. He opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by an angry voice.

"Neville what are you doing, talking with the snakes?" Viola groaned when she heard that voice which she immediately recognised. She turned toward the redhead Weasley.

"Got a problem with that Cherry?" Asked Viola, using the nickname she had given him early the year causing his face to turn all red. She knew he hate that nickname, which made her want to use it more.

"Yes, I do." Weasley hissed maniacally while glaring daggers at her. He turned toward Neville. "You shouldn't trust these filthy snakes Neville. Who knows maybe they are trying to manipulate you into joining their little Death Eater group."

"They're nothing like the others... " Neville started but was interrupted in mid sentence.

"Yes, they are all the same, my parents said so." Weasley declared, then he turned to Viola. "You must be really evil for being able to end up with those filthy snakes."

"Your parents sound like bigots to me. Well I wouldn't expect anything else from the blood traitors." Theo sneered at Weasley.

Weasley sneered back. "At least I have a mother." He smirked when he noticed Theo ball his fists. He turned to Viola, "At least I have a family unlike some pitiful people." He knew he had hit a spot and his smirk showed that it was what he wanted. He took a step closer toward her. "It's better that they're dead you know, or else they would have died in shame anyway because no Gryffindor parents would ever want their child to be a filthy, evil snake."

Now that did it. Anger and pain exploded in her head. Weasley had touched a subject so sensitive to her that it had wiped away all of her control. How dare he talk about her parents as if he'd known them. She didn't believe for a second that her parents would have loved her any less right now if they were alive. HOW DARE HE. She opened her mouth to retort but Neville spoke in her defence.

"Stop it, Weasley. My parents were Gryffindors too but I'm no Gryffindor, and I don't believe they would have hate me for wearing different colors than gold and red." Viola gave him a look of gratitude as she began to regain control of her emotions.

"Better to be a Hufflepuff than an evil snake. My parents said Slytherins are all evil dishonest snakes. They are selfish little cowards who only think about themselves and are incapable of keeping friendships. We should never be friends with the likes of them, Neville."

Viola couldn't hold it any longer, her patience with the red headed boy was running thin. She grabbed her wand and pointed it at Weasley to curse him into oblivion but a stern voice interrupted her.

"Put your wand down, Miss Potter." Professor McGonagall came into their view now, looking seriously pissed off.

"He was insulting my parents and-" Viola started but was interrupted in mid sentence.

"I have heard what Mr. Weasley has said." She turned to Weasley now, and glared at him. "This is not the first time I have caught you quarrelling Mr. Weasley. Since the term started I have heard lot of complaints about your lack of manners." She paused, she pressed her lips into thin line. "You can be assured that your mother will hear about this. I will personally write to her. I'm very disappointed in you, Mr.Weasley. Oh and 50 points from Gryffindor."

"You can't take points from your own house. This is not fair." Weasley argued weakly. His ears turning pink from embarrassment.

"You will find that I can and I will." She said sternly and with that she dragged Weasley out of the library.

For a moment no one spoke, just stared at the two disappearing figures. Then Neville broke the silence after a moment. "Don't listen to what he said guys. He's just an idiot with a prejudiced view of the world, where everything is black and white."

It took the two Slytherins a few minutes to forget about Weasley's offending words but after a moment they joined Neville in a conversation about herbology and quickly forgot about the incident.

On Christmas, when Viola woke early in the morning, the first thing she saw was pile of packages at the foot of her bed. Viola scrambled out of the bed and went to look at the presents. She picked the parcel which she knew contained her father's invisibility cloak. She had torn open the parcel and picked up the shining, silvery cloak, admiring the cloak for a moment then hugging the object to her chest. She had missed it so much and was happy to finally have it back.

Aside from the cloak her other friends had sent presents too. Pansy sent an expensive designer robe in Slytherin green color. Daphne had sent a beautiful framed mirror. Crabbe and Goyle sent a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and other Honeydukes Sweets. Theo had given her a beautiful eagle-feather quill. Neville had sent Chocolate Frogs. And Draco had sent her a leather wand holster. She hurriedly put all the present in her trunk and started to get ready as she heard Theo's yelling from the common room, telling her to come down.

Viola giggled as she and Theo worked to make a snow angel while failing miserably. Theo took advantage of his friend's distraction to throw a snowball at her. Viola was shocked when the cold snow hit her but when she saw Theo smirk, she flicked her wrist and a large ball of snow fall onto Theo's head and all over his shoulders.

Now it was her turn to smirk.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 _A little girl, no more than five years old, sits in the corner of a small dirty room_. _Her knees are drawn to her chest and her head is down_ , _all_ _that_ _could_ _be seen_ _was_ _a_ _mop_ _of_ _messy_ _black_ _hair_. _The_ _little_ _girl_ _twitched_ _and_ _heher_ _body quivered._

 _Suddenly_ , _loud_ _thumping_ _footsteps_ _could be_ _heard, indicating someone_ _was_ _coming. The_ _little_ _girl's_ _head snapped_ _up_ _at the sounds, she_ _trembled and_ _huddled_ _herself_ _up_ _into the_ _corner_. _The_ _door of_ _the_ _small_ _room was_ _thrown_ _open, revealing_ _a big_ _beefy_ _man_ _with_ _hardly_ _any neck and a large_ _moustache_. _His_ _face_ _was_ _red_ _with_ _anger_. _He_ _glared_ _at_ _the_ _little_ _girl._

" _You, girl,_ " _he yelled_. _The_ _man_ _stepped_ _forward and_ _grabbed_ _the_ _small_ _girl_ _by_ _her_ _hair, lifting_ _her_ _up_ _to_ _her_ _feet_. _The_ _little girl_ _whimpered_ _in_ _pain_ _as_ _the_ _rotund man_ _bellowed,_ " _What_ _did_ _I tell_ _you_ _about_ _your_ _freakiness_?"

" _I_ _didn't mean to_ _burn_ _your_ _shirt_ _uncle, I swear_. _The iron_ _was_ _giving nasty shocks whenever_ _I tried_ _to touch it,_ " _she_ _whimpered, tears falling down_ _her_ _cheeks_. " _It was_ _like_ _mag-_ " _but_ _before_ _she_ _could finish the word_ ' _magic' a large_ _hand_ _slammed_ _against her_ _right_ _cheek, the_ _slap_ _was_ _so forceful that she instantly dropped to the_ _dirty_ _floor_.

" _Do not use that word in my hohouse,_ " _he shouted, breathing heavily_. " _Magic_ _does_ _not_ _exist_. _We_ _took_ _you_ _out_ _of the_ _goodness_ _of_ _our_ _hearts_ _when_ _your_ _good_ _for_ _nothing_ _drunken_ _parents_ _died_ _and_ _this_ _is_ _how_ _you_ _repay_ _us? By_ _burning_ _our things, you ungrateful brat. You_ _should have_ _died with your worthless parents, than at least we wouldn't have to tolerate_ _your_ _wretched_ _existence,_ " _he paused,_ " _you_ _will not have_ _any food for two weeks_. _Maybe then you will learn how to be grateful, you little freak._ " _The little girl stared down at the floor, one hand held_ _up to her burning cheek_. _She did not look_ _up as the walrus-like_ _man slammed the door shut and locked it. She laid down on the dirty floor, crying her eyes out alone in the dark room._

Tom jerked awake, sweating and breathing heavily. Everything was incredibly still around him. He looked around in confusion and saw he was in his bed. He rubbed his hands over his face, remembering the dream he had just seen. 'It was no usual dream' he thought to himself. It was so real that he was even able to felt the emotions of the girl through whose eyes he had seen the dream. He hadn't been able to see her face or anything about her, all he knew was that she was a girl.

Leaning against the bed, he realized that his heart was still racing. Her dream. He'd been inside of her dream. He'd been her.

He had a very good idea who the girl was. His soulmate. Now his knowledge was limited when it came to soulmates. He remembered reading a book about soulmates when he was a student. He hadn't paid much attention to it, he had skimmed it and he was satisfied with the information he had gained and left it at that because he never thought he would have a soulmate in his life. Especially considering soulmates were almost a borderline myth. So at the time he didn't think it would be much of importance to his life and goals. However, there were some things he remembered, specifically, that soulmates can share their emotions, their thoughts and sometimes they could share dreams or visions through their connection. Also if one has any special abilities then their mate would have those abilities as well.

He scowled. He'd forgotten to ensure that his Occlumency walls were raised before he drifted off to sleep. He wouldn't make the same mistake again. He had no interest in sharing her dreams or God forbid his dreams with her. Keeping his Occlumency walls up also helped in the case with Potter, as for whatever reason the blasted girl had been experiencing pain in his presence had stopped.

Suddenly anger started to rise inside him as he remembered the contents of the dream he had just seen. The way that girl had been feeling scared of the man she called Uncle, the feeling of helplessness, of self loathing, of fear and pain, so much pain. And the way that walrus-like man spat at her, called her names, promised to not to let her have any food for weeks. Seeing all of these memories allowed him to come to one conclusion, abuse.

His nostrils flared as the realization sank in. He got up from bed and started to pace. His soulmate was being abused, by a Muggle no less. Oh how he loathed Muggles. Soon he would find her and bring her to his side. Whoever the girl was, she was his and his alone. She was his to cherish and his to love. Whoever hurt her will feel his wrath and beg for mercy, but no mercy would be given.

He took a deep breath to calm his anger. 'I won't be able to sleep anymore' he thought. He turned around and walked toward the bathroom to shower. Maybe it would help to clear his mind.

The following morning Viola was in a bad mood. For starters, the night had been spoiled by a horrible nightmare. Though it was nothing new for her, she had been having bad dreams all her life and she was quite used to it by now. No, what was bothering her was that since she woke up, she had been feeling Tom's anger through their connection, which was affecting her too. She hadn't felt any anger or madness from his side for a very long time. She wondered what had made him angry now and instantly started to wonder at what she had done wrong. Because she always seemed to have the misfortune of being at the center of the reason of his anger, but she was certain this time she hadn't done anything wrong.

She glanced up at the staff table, Tom hadn't yet come to Great Hall for breakfast.

"We have Herbology first with puffs, others are all with Gryffintwits." Said Draco with a sigh as he checked his schedule. Viola turned toward him.

"I don't know why the Professors even bother to set Gryffindor and Slytherin together in almost every class. All we do in these classes is glare and sneer at each other. It would have been a lot better if our classes were set up with Hufflepuff and then have Gryffindor with Ravenclaw." Daphne said in a bored tone. Others around mumbled their agreements.

"Tell this to that senile old goat. It's all his idea. My father said that it used to be different when Dippet was headmaster. Classes, books were all changed later after Dumbledore was appointed headmaster." Draco said with distaste.

The others continued to bad mouth the headmaster, and maybe she would have joined them on any other day, but today Viola was in no mood to chatter, she just sat quietly and kept eating. Theo and Draco noticed their friend's change in mood but did not ask anything. They knew their friend well enough to know that if she wanted to tell them anything, she would tell them by herself away from the others.

After finishing their breakfast they made their way to Herbology class. When they were half way there Viola suddenly spoke to Theo and Draco,

"I want to do it tonight," She paused, the trio stopped walking and held back as the other students walked past them. "I want to steal the stone tonight." She whispered to the boys quietly so that no one could overhear.

"But why so soon?" Theo asked, "Or at least wait until exams are over."

"No. That's when Dumbledore expects something to happen. I would rather do it when he isn't expecting." She paused and looked at the boys with a serious look on her face. "Besides, exams are 10 weeks away and everyone is busy now. including the Professors. This is the best time to do it."

"Okay," Draco agreed after a little silence. "When are we going to do it?"

"We?" Asked Viola, with a raised brow.

"You aren't planning to go there alone, are you?" Draco asked incredulously. "Don't be an idiot, who knows what's down there, what if you die there? It's better to be three of us than just one."

Viola restrained herself from saying that she knew what was down there and what to expect. "Fine. Tonight at 10 o'clock when everyone goes to sleep, we will meet in the common room, okay?" At that both boys nodded their heads in unison.

They resumed their walk to Herbology and were glad to see Professor Sprout hadn't arrived yet. Viola took her seat beside Neville. He gave her a smile as she sat, which she returned. Theo and Draco sat in front of them. Two minutes later Professor Sprout arrived and began the lesson about devil's snare, 'what a coincidence' Viola thought to herself.

"Merlin's beard what's wrong with him today?" Pansy asked, as the first year Slytherins hurriedly made their way out of DADA class room with relieved faces. "I never saw him so angry before."

'Indeed,' Viola thought. She knew he was angry about something for some reason, that's why she had chosen to sit at one of the benches at the far end of the room and dragged Draco and Theo along there too. They didn't object and let themselves be dragged. Since she told the boys who Quirrell really was they began to avoid him like the plague, they wouldn't even look at him and always seemed to be tense and nervous whenever he was near. She couldn't blame them. Anyone in their shoes would have reacted far worse than them at the revelation.

Later Tom stormed into the classroom and slammed the door shut loudly. One look at his fuming face was enough to quiet down the entire room. By the end of the class he had taken 60 points from both houses.

"It is a wonder that he didn't 'crucio' anyone, knowing who he really is." Theo whispered to his two friends. Viola lips twisted a little at that.

After dinner the three of them sat in the common room. Viola and Draco were playing wizard chess and Theo was skimming through his book, hoping to come across some spells that would be useful for their coming expedition.

Slowly, the room emptied as people drifted off to bed. As soon as the last person, Marcus Flint, yawned and went up to his dormitory Viola jumped to her feet. She had an excited look on her face.

"Stay there! I will be right back." she told the boys quietly, and she sprinted up the stairs to her dormitory. Theo and Draco barely had time to exchange mystified looks before she was dashing back, a shining, silvery cloth in her hand.

Theo grasped. "Is that an Invisibility Cloak?" He asked, a look of awe on his face, "They're very rare, very valuable. Where did you get one?"

Viola nodded her head. "It was my father's." She said, it was the first time she had brought the cloak out of her trunk since she had put it there. She wasn't able to use it much because she hardly ever wandered around at night like she used to do in her first life.

"I'd give anything for one of these," Draco said as he put his hand around the cloak. "Anything."

"It will help us to get to the third floor corridor without being seen, come." She told them and threw the cloak around the three of them.

The trio carefully walked out into the hall and headed to the third floor, it seemed like luck was with them because they hadn't come across anyone, well except Mrs. Norris. That Demon was skulking near the top of the second floor corridor staircase.

"Did you bring what I asked?" Viola asked Draco when they reached the Cerberus' room. She had asked him to bring a musical instrument when he went home for holidays. She had told the boys that to get past the three headed dog they needed to play music.

"Yes," the blond boy replied as he pulled out a harp from his rope. "But are you sure it will work?"

He look doubtful as he stared at the growling monstrous beast as all the three of its noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see them. Not that he doubted Viola but he was having a hard time believing that such a horrible beast could be controlled by music of all things.

Viola took the harp from his hand. "Trust me, alright." She said with narrowed eyes.

She waved her wand and the harp started to play itself. A tune floated through the room immediately sending the Cerberus to sleep.

"Look, it's working." Said Theo when the dog's eyes closed.

"Unbelievable." Draco said incredulously.

"Come on." She said as she levitated the beast's paw off the trap door and jumped, the boys came flying down behind her, they landed on a plant that started to wrap around their limbs.

"What is this? Its going to strangle us to death." Draco began to panic as he struggled to pull the plant off him.

"Stop screaming like a little girl." Theo snapped at him.

Viola on the other hand lit a fire which caused the plant to cringe away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from their bodies, and they

were able to pull themselves free.

"Uh, that was easy." Draco mumbled as he got up.

"This way." Said Viola, she hurried down a stone passageway, the boys followed close behind her.

"Can you hear something?" Draco whispered when he heard a soft rustling and clicking sounds.

Viola nodded, "it's the keys."

They reached the end of the passageway and arrived in a brightly lit chamber with a surprisingly high ceiling. Opposite them was a very large wooden door, and above them the air was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we try to cross the room?" Theo asked while gazing at the flying key birds.

"No. But we need a key to open the door," Viola paused. "That one!" She pointed. "That big one with the bright blue wings, the feathers are all crumpled on one side. That's the key."

"We have to fly to catch it," said Draco. He was looking around the room, "oh look, there's broomstick here." He made his way to pick up the broomstick.

"Wait." Theo said suddenly as an idea come into his mind. He thrust his hand forward and summoned the key, immediately the key come flying toward his hand. Viola grinned at him.

Draco had an incredulous look on his face. "Seriously? They didn't even put an anti-summoning charm on the key. This is how they expect to stop the Dark Lord from stealing the stone? What are they, dumb?" He shook his head.

Theo rammed the key into the lock and pulled the door open.

Stepping through, they found themselves in a dark room. As they stepped forward the door slammed shut behind them and at the same time the whole room lit up, revealing a life sized chess board, complete with pieces. They tried to walk across but the pieces came to life and blocked their way.

"Seems like we have to play to get to the other side." Viola said.

"So... Who is good in chess?" Theo asked.

Viola pull up her hands in surrender. "I'm nowhere near good at chess."

"I will play since neither of you are good at chess. Viola, you take the place of Queen, Theo you will be Bishop." While the two do so, Draco himself replaced one of the Knights.

In all the chess matches white moved first and then black. Draco directed the black pieces around the board. They moved silently wherever he sent them. Viola was quite impressed by Draco's chess playing, seeing that he was able to finish the game in a very short time.

"Aha! Checkmate." The blond boy declared his victory with a proud smirk, jumping up and down happily. The white king took off his crown and threw it at Draco's feet. They had won.

Viola was happy that this time around no one had to get injured. Clearly Draco was far more accomplished in wizard chess than Weasley ever would be.

"Come on guys, we have to hurry up." Viola told them and charged through the door and up to the next room.

"What do you think will be next?" Asked Theo.

"I have a feeling it will be something to do with Quirrell." She told them. Of course she knew what awaited them in the next room. But she wasn't about to tell the boys that and raise their suspicions about how she knew it.

They had reached another door and Viola pushed it open, revealing a troll around 20 feet tall, sitting in the corner, apparently asleep.

"Oh, poor thing," Viola said, "being stuck in a room with no company. How miserable he must be feeling." While she was looking at the troll pitifully, Theo and Draco stared at her incredulously.

"Poor thing, really?" Draco said.

"Come off it, will you? A troll can have feelings too."

"I don't want to go through that thing." Theo said. Swallowed hard as he remembered the one on Halloween night.

Viola looked around the room and spotted a door on the opposite side.

"The door is over there." Viola pointed. "Come on, the troll is sleeping. We can cross without waking it up."

The two boys nodded and followed her. They moved silently, as soon as they reached the door, the trio bolted through the door together and flames shot up in each doorway, one set was purple and the other set was black.

Theo took the sheet of parchment off the table which Viola knew contained Snape's riddle.

"Professor Snape is way too smart for his own good." Theo muttered as he read it and turned to inspect the bottles, but Viola had already picked up two bottles.

"This bottle will get us toward the stone, through the black flame," She explained as she showed the the tiny black bottle, "and this one will get us back through the purple flame."

Theo reread the riddle again then looked at the bottles and nodded his head. He looked like he wanted to say something but kept silent, just narrowing his eyes at Viola suspiciously.

"But that's hardly a mouthful." Draco said, taking the tiny bottle.

"I think as soon as the bottle goes back in its place, it will refill."

"And what if it doesn't?" Asked Theo.

"Then you two will wait here and I will go on and get the stone. It's the last room." She replied.

The boys agreed. Viola drank the tiny bottle amd walked straight through the fire. She quickly reached the last chamber, as she was looking around, Draco and than Theo entered the room.

"I was right, wasn't I?" She asked in a smug tone.

"Shut up."

"What's this now?" Asked Draco as he inspected a grand mirror which was the only thing in the room.

"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi," Theo muttered, "I show not your face but your heart's desire."

"The stone is in the mirror." Viola informed them.

"Clever."

Draco stood in front of the mirror and he looked into it, he gasped. "I can see myself, holding a Quidditch cup, my mother and father stand beside me, beaming proudly at me," Draco smile, tore his eyes away, "but I can't see the stone."

Theo on the other hand seemed like had gone frozen. There an odd expression on his face, his eyes seem to shining in the light.

"Theo, what do you see in the mirror?" Viola asked softly.

There was a small pause, "uh, nothing... I can't see the stone neither." He look away from the mirror, blinking rapidly, he did not look at the mirror again.

Viola didn't press him, clearly he didn't want to talk about it now.

"Give me a minute." Viola placed herself in front of the glass, she closed her eyes and focused her thoughts and feelings then snapped her eyes open. She stood calmly staring into the mirror when the reflection suddenly winked and pulled a blood red stone from her rope pocket and replaced it in the same place, only this time she felt a weight land in her actual pocket. She pulled out the stone from her pocket and showed to the boys, a large grin was on her face.

"Holy shit, how did you do that?"

"You just needed to want the stone but not want to use it, it's simple when you think about it."

Theo shook his head and sighed. Viola just laughed. She looked the stone over, looking at all its details before conjuring up one that was identical and set it back in to the mirror.

"Come on, we needed to go back to our common room."

The trio made their way out of the chambers without any trouble. When Viola cancelled the charm on the harp the Cerberus dog immediately woke up and started to growl at them, Viola shut the door and pulled out her invisibility cloak to cover three of them and they made their to the dungeon.

What they were unaware of was that someone was waiting for them in the common room. Someone who was by this point quite livid for the amount of time he had to wait for the little brats return.

"Anguineus!" Viola whispered the password and the blank wall opened. The three of them entered the common room, Viola was about to remove the cloak when she heard a snarky voice, a voice that struck fear into the hearts of Hogwarts students (past and present) for several years.

"Remove your invisibility cloak, Miss Potter."

The three of them watched with wide eyes as Professor Snape came out of the corner where he was hidden in the shadows, looking furious and glaring hard at the trio.

'Oh God.' Viola thought dreadfully.

TBC….


End file.
